The mafias that traffic immigrants to Spain have found the formula to continue doing business in the face of increased Moroccan pressure on irregular immigration. According to police sources, criminal organizations have found a vein on the Algerian route to the peninsula and the Balearic Islands. The balance on irregular arrivals made public yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior illustrates this trend: entries so far this year through the Canary Islands have fallen by 11.3% compared to 2022, while the Algerian route -the second most deadly – ??has shot up with 31.8% more than a year ago.
In the Ministry of the Interior the alarms are not turned on. Global data continues to place Spain as the Mediterranean country to which fewer immigrants are arriving. In the first seven months of 2023, 16,174 people have entered irregularly –both by sea and land–, compared to 16,718 in the same period of 2022. 3.3% less. Nothing to do with the stratospheric figures of Italy. However, if we go into detail, the data shows the wave of migrants leaving the Algerian coasts for Spain. And it is that in recent days more than twenty boats have arrived on the coasts of Granada, Almería, Alicante and Formentera in which more than 400 people were traveling.
The mafias, according to the same police sources, are using taxi pateras for the transfer through the Algerian route, speedboats that have been equipped with high-powered engines to cover the journey for which they charge about 8,000 euros to each of the people. The Government delegate in Murcia has confirmed that the majority of migrants who have arrived on its shores in recent months have done so in these “speedboats”.
In the case of the Valencian Community, the 54 migrants who were rescued throughout Sunday by Maritime Rescue aboard five small boats in the south of the region account for 30% of the 186 interceptions of migrants since January 1, 2023.
From the Government they rule out that Algeria is using immigration as a political weapon, as Morocco was doing – as they admitted at the time from Moncloa – during the months that the diplomatic crisis unleashed after Spain welcomed the leader of the Polisario Front. This year the jumps over the fences in Ceuta and Melilla have dropped drastically. Through the autonomous cities, 571 people have entered until July 31. A figure that represents almost 70% less than in 2022.
Meanwhile, the route that continues to fall –despite the increase in boats that have arrived in the archipelago in recent weeks– is the Canary Islands. The statistics of this route, the deadliest, were reversed after Madrid and Rabat sealed the reunion in March of last year. So far this year, 8,508 migrants have arrived in 165 boats. In the same period of 2002, 9,589 people did so in 212 boats. What does really call the attention of the Government of the Canary Islands – and for this reason they have asked the Interior for more information – is the increasing arrival of migrants from Senegal. There is concern about the consequences that the political crisis in that African country may have on the migratory phenomenon.
