The Guard Civil has found human remains on Migjorn beach, on the island of Formentera, according to the Balearic Islands Command’s Peripheral Communication Office. The discovery was made on Wednesday at 9.15 a.m. by a Guardia Civil patrol that was conducting reconnaissance tasks on the island’s coast.
The body was in an advanced state of decomposition and everything indicates that it had been in the sea for a long time before being washed up on the beach, according to the Armed Forces. The officers activated the judicial protocol for the removal of the body and its transfer to the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences for an autopsy.
Due to the lack of identification, the Guardia Civil cannot confirm that this is an immigrant who lost his life while attempting to reach the Balearics in a small boat, as is suspected in the case of the numerous bodies that have appeared on the coast or in the waters of the Balearics over the summer.
The Guardia Civil are continuing their investigation into the discovery in Balearic waters of bodies of migrants whose hands and feet had been bound.
A homicide investigation by the force’s Judicial Police, it is focused on what is believed must have been an argument on one particular boat that had headed away from the Balearics towards Denia in the Alicante province of Valencia. Since January this year, 31 bodies of migrants have been discovered in Balearic waters or on beaches. Accidents at sea are the usual explanation.
Spain has surpassed Germany as the main destination for asylum in the European Union, according to the latest data from the EU Agency for Asylum report. In May 2025, Spain recorded nearly 12,800 asylum applications. This figure places Spain above Germany, which had historically been the leader in this area.
This change has occurred mainly due to a significant decrease in protection applications from Syrian citizens. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, there has been a drastic drop in asylum applications from Syrians in the EU, which has especially affected Germany. In May 2025, asylum applications from Syrians across the EU fell from 16,000 to just 3,100.