The National Police in Palma has arrested three minors accused of skippering a boat from which two migrants disappeared in the middle of an agonizing six-day journey from Algeria in the middle of a hurricane storm. A third passenger came ashore dead. The minors are accused of a crime of favoring irregular immigration with serious risk to people’s lives since the trip was a true nightmare with a storm that swept the islands with serious damage.
The boat was detected adrift on August 31 in an area near Portocolom, in Mallorca. She had left on the 25th from the Dellys area, in Algeria, with 15 people on board. The boat’s engine broke down in the middle of a strong storm that hit the Islands, with hurricane winds of more than 120 kilometers per hour. The boat was left adrift in the sea, without an engine. The boat ran out of water, food and fuel to continue the journey.
Due to the terrible state of the sea, two of the migrants who were on the drifting boat decided to jump into the water and try to swim and reach the coast, but at that moment a very strong storm was unfolding. From then on, there was no news of them. Another of the passengers on the boat, who was diabetic, ran out of insulin and died on the voyage. The entire journey was a real nightmare, as detailed by the survivors to the police officers.
After arriving on land, the Provincial Immigration and Border Brigade of the National Police began the procedures to clarify what had happened. All the migrants were identified, including those who jumped into the sea terrified by the storm. The man who came ashore dead aboard the boat has also been identified.
As a result of this investigation, it was found out that the boat’s skippers were three minors, who were also the only ones with certain knowledge about navigation. Investigators have arrested them, accused of an alleged crime of favoring irregular immigration with serious risk to people’s lives, with one of them dead and two others missing.
The Police have detected that, in recent months, there has been an increase in boats from Algeria skippered by minors. The facts have been brought to the attention of the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office on the one hand and the Investigating Court on Duty in Manacor on the other. So far this year, a total of 36 patera-type boats have been intercepted in Mallorca and 21 people have been arrested accused of favoring irregular immigration.
