The centres for temporarily accommodating migrants in transit at the ports of Ibiza and Formentera will be operational ‘in a few days’ and Mallorca shortly after. According to a statement issued by the Balearic Islands Government Delegation, work is progressing at a ‘good pace’ and the exterior assembly of the facilities was practically completed by the end of last week. All that remains is to complete the layout of the interior spaces and rooms and to furnish them with the necessary equipment for their intended functions.
At the port of Botafoc in Ibiza, the facilities will be used for initial reception and temporary accommodation, while at the port of La Savina in Formentera, they will be used by the Guardia Civil to hold new arrivals before they are transferred to Ibiza, where they will be taken into custody by the National Police. The facility in the port of Ibiza covers 500 square metres and has the capacity to accommodate around 120 people overnight. The facility in Formentera covers 230 square metres and can accommodate around 50 people.
Both will have specific areas for the accommodation of women and minors, separate from the rest of the adults, and will be equipped with security, hygiene and air conditioning services. The two projects are financed by an emergency budget of €6.7 million from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, which includes an extension of the contract with the Red Cross, which is responsible for providing initial assistance to migrants.
In the coming weeks, a 600-square-metre modular space will also be installed in the port of Palma to house migrants travelling to the mainland for a few hours, many of them to go to one of the state centres in the humanitarian reception system. France and Spain received more asylum applications in the first half of 2025 than Germany, with more Venezuelan and fewer Syrian applications partly responsible.
Germany is no longer the country where the most people apply for asylum in the European Union, fresh data released by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) on Monday shows. By the end of June 2025, France (78,000) and Spain (77,000) both received more applications than Germany (70,000), which has been the main destination for asylum seekers in recent years.
By the end of June 2025, EU countries plus Norway and Switzerland received 399,000 asylum applications, a 23% decrease compared to the first half of 2024. There was a significant dip in applications lodged by Syrian citizens, with 25,000 fewer than the first six months of the previous year, due to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria last December.