At least 1,037 migrants have disappeared, presumed dead, while attempting to cross the so-called Algerian route by boat in 2025, a year in which the Balearics have become a ‘laboratory of the necro-border’. This is one of the conclusions drawn from the annual report “Monitoring the Right to Life” produced by the organisation Caminando Fronteras and published on Monday.
The Algerian route, which links northern Algeria with the eastern coast of the mainland and the Balearics, has remained active throughout the year and has established itself as the busiest migration route to Spain, surpassing the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands and the routes from northern Morocco.
In addition, according to the NGO, the trend towards the ‘most dangerous’ part of the route, which leads to the Balearics, especially Ibiza and Formentera, has been confirmed. So much so that the organisation has detected small boats leaving from points in eastern Algeria which, although they traditionally headed for the central Mediterranean, have now changed course to try to reach the Pitiusas.
The Caminando Fronteras human rights observatory has documented 1,037 victims in 121 maritime tragedies, of which 47 correspond to boats that have disappeared entirely. The increase in victims has been particularly significant in January (136), October (144) and November (168). The least deadly months were July (44), May (45) and December (54).
In analysing each of these tragedies, the organisation has determined that the Balearics continue to be one of the regions with the ‘greatest opacity’ in relation to the search for people missing at sea. According to the report, ‘passive searches’ and ‘operations limited to areas close to the territory’ persist in the islands, compounded by ‘poor cooperation between countries that share the protection of SAR areas’, i.e. those responsible for coordinating rescue operations for people in danger at sea.
The ‘delay’ in activating search and rescue services ‘remains significant,’ in addition to the use of ‘passive search methods’ when ‘proactive operations’ would be necessary. An example of the need to address this situation in rescue service protocols is the high number of bodies that have washed up on the beaches of the Balearics throughout 2025 – more than fifty – which, according to the organisation, shows that many of them had drowned ‘shortly before appearing on the beach’.
‘The authorities must ask themselves whether these shipwrecks could have been prevented and open an investigation to ensure effective protection of the right to life at sea. Unfortunately, this is not happening,’ the report stressed.
The result, according to Caminando Fronteras, is ‘cemeteries full of unmarked graves, people buried without identity, without farewell ceremonies, without respect for their religious traditions and, most importantly, without their families knowing that this has been their end.’ One of the places where this situation occurs is the cemetery in Formentera, which has led its gravedigger to write the date of the discovery of the body on each of these graves ‘as an act of remembrance for the victims and a way to help the families.’