The mafias that traffic in immigrants bound for Spain have found the formula to continue doing business due to the increase in Moroccan pressure on irregular immigration. According to police sources, criminal organizations have found a mine on the Algerian route to the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. The balance sheet on irregular arrivals made public yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior illustrates this trend: entries through the Canary Islands have dropped this year by 11.3% compared to 2022, while the Algerian route - the second deadliest - has grown, with 31.8% more.
In the Ministry of the Interior, the alarms are not on. Global data continue to place Spain as the Mediterranean country where fewer immigrants are arriving. In the first seven months of 2023, 16,174 people entered irregularly - by sea and land - compared to 16,718 in the same period in 2022. 3.3% less. Nothing to do with Italy's stratospheric figures. However, if you want to go into detail, the data shows the wave of migrants leaving from the Algerian shores heading for Spain. And it is that in the last few days more than twenty shepherds have arrived on the coasts of Granada, Almeria, Alicante and Formentera, in which more than 400 people were traveling.
The mafias, according to police sources, are using for the transfer through the Algerian route pastores taxi, fast boats that have been equipped with high-powered engines to cover the crossing, for which they charge around 8,000 euros per person. The representative of the Spanish Government in Murcia has confirmed that most of the migrants who have arrived on the coasts of the region in recent months have done so in these speedboats.
In the case of the Valencian Community, the 54 migrants who were rescued on Sunday by Salvament Marítim aboard five shepherds in the south of the region represent 30% of the 186 interceptions of migrants since January 1, 2023.
From the Spanish 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 lasted 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 decline – despite the increase in shepherds arriving 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 last year. This year, 8,508 migrants arrived with 165 shepherds. In the same period of 2002, 9,589 people did it with 212 boats. What does really attract the attention of the Government of the Canary Islands - and that is why they have asked the Interior for more information - is the growing 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.
