A man from Sierra Leone and another from Gambia have been remanded in custody for aiding illegal immigration from Algeria to Spain, after steering two boats with 54 immigrants on board to Cabrera, Mallorca. The National Police identified and arrested the two skippers of two boats that arrived in the south of Mallorca in recent days, the police force reported in a statement.
One of the men allegedly captained a boat with 32 people on board, 30 men and two women from Guinea, Mali, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Benin and Nigeria. The other skipper is accused of captaining another boat with 24 people on board, 22 of them men, one of them a minor, and two women, from Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Guinea.
Investigators observed the conditions on the boat, noting the overcrowding of passengers and the saturation of the waterline, which led to the arrest of the alleged skippers. The National Police has noted that criminal organisations involved in illegal migration from the Algerian coast to Mallorca are located in the Dellys area, on the north-eastern coast of Algeria.
These organisations, according to the police, are made up of fixers, who are people who offer the journey to Spain by boat in exchange for around €3,000 per person. Other members of the organisation are responsible for obtaining all the necessary equipment for the journey, such as the boat, fuel, engine and GPS device, while others take on the role of skipper.
It has also been reported that irregular arrivals in European Union countries have fallen by 21% so far this year, according to data provided by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), which nevertheless shows a 22% increase on the western Mediterranean route. This route, which includes the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearics, has already seen 11,791 arrivals and is the only one, along with the English Channel, to have recorded a percentage increase.
According to a statement by Frontex, arrivals via the western Mediterranean route have increased by 22% so far this year, although in August alone the increase was nearly 60%. Departures from Algeria, again according to data from the European border agency, have accounted for more than 90% of the cases detected so far because ‘Algerian-Moroccan mafias offer various cheap options for reaching Spain’.
According to the Interior Ministry’s figures, 4,852 migrants had arrived in the Balearic Islands by 31 August, although in the first few days of September the number had already exceeded 5,000.
Across Europe as a whole, a total of 112,375 irregular crossings of the external border have been recorded, according to the European agency, which reports the deployment of more than 3,700 Frontex agents in the territory to support national authorities in migration control.
In the case of entry routes into Spain, the data show a 52% decrease in irregular arrivals to the Canary Islands between January and August this year, totalling 12,147 cases (572 in August alone).
In contrast, crossings increased by 22% on the Mediterranean route into the Iberian Peninsula, with a total of 11,791 arrivals recorded.
In any case, the central Mediterranean remains the most travelled route for irregular migrants, accounting for 37% of all cases across the European Union’s external border. Frontex data also show a significant reduction in arrivals via the Western Balkans, with a 47% drop, and on routes through Eastern Europe, with a 44% reduction.
The figures remain stable for the central Mediterranean, with nearly 42,000 arrivals so far this year, and fall by 18% in the eastern Mediterranean, where nearly 32,000 irregular crossings were detected. In addition, crossings to the United Kingdom via the English Channel increased by 13% with 46,381 crossings.