Balearic government spokesperson, Antoni Costa, warned today that ‘uncontrolled immigration can cause problems of coexistence’ and has called on the central government to take measures to curb the increase in arrivals of small boats from Algeria. ‘Of course, the regional government does not want to see a scenario’ like the one in Torre Pacheco, Costa said at a press conference when asked about the incidents in the Murcian town.
Asked at the press conference following Tuesday’s extraordinary cabinet meeting, the spokesman declined to comment on far right party Vox’s possible incitement to violence in Torre Pacheco, which the public prosecutor’s office is proposing to investigate, or on the views on immigration of the right-wing party in the Balearics, a parliamentary partner of the PP.
‘What the regional government does say is that immigration must be controlled,’ orderly and sustainable, emphasised Costa, who stressed that the increase in the arrival of immigrants in small boats to the region (three times higher this year compared to 2024) could lead to a situation similar to that in the Canary Islands. ‘Our obligation is to demand that this does not happen (...), that those with the power to do so take measures,’ he insisted.
The Moroccan community leaders in the Spanish town of Torre Pacheco have called for calm following four nights of clashes between North African migrants and the far-right, in some of the worst such unrest in the country in recent times. Police have detained at least 14 people so far over the clashes that flared up on Friday after an attack last week on a local man in his 60s.
Far-right groups have called for anti-migrant protests on Tuesday and over 120 Civil Guard officers have been deployed to maintain security in the town, a government spokesperson for the region said.
Authorities said three Moroccan citizens suspected of involvement in the assault have been apprehended, including a 19-year-old alleged to be the main perpetrator. He was detained on Monday evening in northern Spain on assault and battery charges.
A spokesperson for the central government’s office in the Murcia region said none of the suspects lived in Torre Pacheco. After xenophobic messages on social media to “hunt down” residents of North African origin, leaders of the local Moroccan community urged calm and advised younger members to remain in their homes after dozens took to the streets over the weekend and on Monday, clashing with far-right groups and police.
“We want peace ... We don’t want criminals, we don’t want violence or people who come from outside to make trouble here,“ Abdelali, an informal spokesperson for the Moroccan community who has lived in the town for 25 years, told reporters.
Police arrested three people overnight after a confrontation with dozens of young men in the San Antonio neighbourhood, home to a majority of the town’s first- and second generation migrants who represent nearly a third of the town’s population of 40,000, according to local government data.
Reuters footage showed some of the protesters, mostly masked, lobbing fireworks at officers clad in riot gear, who responded by firing rubber bullets.
Spain’s top hate crimes prosecutor, Miguel Angel Aguilar, told SER radio on Tuesday that his office was investigating the events in Torre Pacheco, as well as social media messages inciting violence towards migrants. He also confirmed regional prosecutors were looking at statements by the leader of far-right party Vox in Murcia, Jose Angel Antelo, who is accused by Spain’s ruling Socialist Party of linking immigration to criminality in speeches, media appearances and posts on X.
Late on Monday, the messaging app Telegram shuttered a channel named “DeportThemNowSpain” for “inciting violence”. Reuters reviewed dozens of messages in the channel that included expletive-laden calls to attack Moroccans residing in Torre Pacheco or set fire to their homes. The Spanish Interior Ministry said police in Mataro, near Barcelona, had arrested an unnamed leader of supremacist movement “Deport Them Now Europe” suspected of inciting hatred and seized two computers.