ARCHIVED - Over 500 irregular immigrants reached Spain on Tuesday on western Mediterranean Route

The Region of Murcia, Canary and Balearic Islands, Andalucia and Alicante Province received dozens of boats

This year the number of migrations to Spain has been lower than normal, due principally to the restrictions caused by Covid-19, but in recent weeks there has been an upsurge in activity with calmer weather bringing increased numbers of migrants, and organised criminal gangs taking advantage of the inability of Spain to currently repatriate migrants to bring increased numbers of economic migrants into Spain, principally from Algeria.

Frontex, the EU border force, reports that there were nearly 1 600 detections of illegal border crossings on the Western Mediterranean migratory route in August 2020, 7% less than in the previous month.

The total for the first eight months of 2020, was nearly half the figure from the same period in the previous year at 8,200, down 46%.

However, Algerians have accounted for nearly two-thirds of all detections on the route this year, and the August figure was six times the figure from a year ago, which ties in with the deteriorating economic and political situation in Algeria, and the border closure in Morocco, which is preventing many of the sub-Saharan migrants getting into Morocco in the first place.

The distance for Algerians to the Spanish coastline favours the Murcia Region and Alicante as chosen destinations, the increase in Algerians logically leading to an increased level of traffic to Murcia. The Canary Islands migrants tend to be Magrebi, the Andalucian coast is generally a mixture of both and in Alicante the arrivals are generally Algerians.

NB: The migrants are referred to as “irregular immigrants” by the EU; the Spanish media tend to call them “sin papeles” meaning those with no paperwork entering the country illegally, others refer to them as illegal migrants. The phrase irregular migrants is used in an attempt to convey that these are not refugees, but economic migrants, in this case from Algeria, entering Spain and the EU in an illegal fashion, without passports or documentation and without any legal right to enter the EU as Algeria is not an EU member and there is no migration agreement between the two countries.

Social media keyboard wizards tend to vociferously demand justification of the word “irregular”; basically these migrants are either legally refugees or they are illegal economic migrants; there isn´t a third option.

The figures:
Region of Murcia
First wave: 13 pateras totalling 170 migrants, all Algerian.
Vessel No. 1, Intercepted 4 nautical miles southeast of Cabo Palos 10 male immigrants on board.Vessel
No. 2, Intercepted 8.5 nautical miles southeast of Cabo Palos with 6 male immigrants on board

Vessel No. 3, Intercepted 8 miles South Cabo de Palos with 17 immigrants, all males

Vessel No. 4, Intercepted 8 miles South of Cabo de Palos with 16 male immigrants

Boat No. 5. Intercepted 13 miles southeast of Monte Cenizas (with 11 immigrants (9 men, 1 woman and 1 minor)

Boat No. 6. Intercepted 15 miles southeast of Monte Cenizas with 15 immigrants (14 men and 1 woman).

Vessel No. 7. Intercepted 6 miles southeast of Cabo Tiñoso with 16 immigrants (13 males and supposedly 3 minors)

Vessel No. 8. Intercepts 7.5 miles to the Southeast Monte Cenizas with 7 immigrants (6 males and 1 minor).

Vessel No. 9. Intercepted 16 miles southeast of Monte Cenizas with 19 male immigrants.
Vessel No. 10. Intercepted 9.5 miles south of Monte Cenizas with 10 male immigrants.
Boat No. 11.- Intercepted 15 miles to the South of Monte Cenizas with 9 male imigrants.
Vessel No. 12. Intercepted 14.2 miles southeast of Monte Cenizas with 18 male immigrants

Vessel nº 13. Intercepted 14 miles southeast of Monte Cenizas with 16 male immigrants.
Total on September 21, 13 boats, 170 immigrants


Second wave, Tuesday morning/lunchtime: 55 migrants, 5 boats, all Algerian:
Vessel No. 1, Intercepted 10 miles south of Mount Cenizas with 10 male immigrants.

Vessel No. 2, Intercepted 15 nautical miles south of Monte Cenizas with 12 male immigrants on board

Vessel No. 3, Intercepted 17 miles south of Monte Cenizas with 10 immigrants, all males

Vessel No. 4, Intercepted 17 miles south of Monte Cenizas with 10 immigrants, all males

Vessel No. 5. Intercepted in Cabo Cope with 13 male immigrants

Total; 5 boats, 55 immigrants.

All were of Algerian nationality and all were in apparently good health.

In the last 10 days a total of 629 Algerian migrants have entered Spain through Murcia.

Balearic and Canary Islands:
164 migrants were intercepted after reaching the coasts of the Balearic Islands on Monday evening/Tuesday morning with 11 boats located:

A French Navy ship rescued four patera-type vessels with 55 occupants at midnight about 60 miles south of Cap de ses Salines (Mallorca). Salvamento Marítimo mobilized with the Salvamar Acrux, based in Puerto Portals, and the ship Marta Mata, based in Ibiza, and went to the rescue point to transfer the migrants to the port of Palma at dawn.

A second French ship, a frigate, rescued three other boats in the same area with 40 occupants and has also transferred them to the port of Palma.

At midnight, the Guardia Civil from the Formentera post intercepted nine occupants of a boat, all of them men and of Algerian origin.

The Guardia Civil also located a boat in the Cala Llombards area, in Santanyí, with five migrants, and in the Colònia de Sant Jordi the agents intercepted another nine occupants, although later they found another ten more - four in Campos and six in Santanyí.

Canary Islands:

In Gran Canaria a Maritime Rescue boat rescued a total of five boats with 68 migrants on Monday night. After being rescued, the irregular immigrants were transferred to the Arguineguín dock.
 

Andalucía

Salvamento Marítimo and Guardia Civil rescued 64 men of Maghreb origin who were traveling aboard four boats in the Alboran Sea, 25 nautical miles southeast of Cabo de Gata, in Almería.

Salvamar Spica rescued two groups of 15 people from each boat while the Civil Guard patrol boat intercepted two other boats with 15 and 19 people on board.

Salvamento Marítimo rescued a total of 16 people aboard four boats in the surroundings of Gibraltar and Bolonia, in Cádiz, actions coordinated by the Tarifa Coordination Center ( Cadiz).

Alicante Province, Valencia region
Finally, in Alicante, a dinghy with seven people was located this Tuesday around 7.30 am in Cala Moraig in Benitatxell (Alicante). In this instance, those aboard called the coastguard when they were 3 nautical miles from Benidorm. Click for more info

All of these new arrivals will be covid tested; positives will be hospitalised, close contacts quarantined. Due to the current border situation, it is impossible to repatriate the remainder, who will be released within 72 hours providing they are not covid positive as Spain has no legal remit to detain them if they can´t be repatriated.
 

Donate to Cruz Roja; Humanitarian work to ensure those arriving in Spain are treated with dignity is undertaken by the humanitarian organisation Cruz Roja. If you would like to donate, here is the link: Cruz Roja Española

Further reading

EU Action plan against Migrant Smuggling 2015/2020 Click to read

EU Directive f2008/115/EC Common standards and procedures in EU Member States for returning illegally staying third country nationals. Click to read

FRONTEX European coast guard and border control agency. This explains more about the migration issue and shows the different routes taken. Our routes here are the "Western Mediterranean" routes used principally by Moroccans And Algerians.Click Frontex