From Monday to Thursday, 42 migrant boats arrived in the Balearics. There were 706 people, the total number of illegal migrants this year having now risen to 4,441 – more than twice as many as during the whole of 2023 (2,194).
From 2020 to 2023, the highest annual number of migrants was 2,637 in 2022; the lowest was 1,464 in 2020. The scale of the increase in 2024 has sparked off all manner of concerns, not least in three of Mallorca’s municipalities where the boats most commonly arrive – Campos, Santanyi and Ses Salines. There is a political dimension to this in that all three are governed by the Partido Popular. They are highly critical of the Spanish Government’s delegate in the Balearics, the former mayor of Calvia, PSOE’s Alfonso Rodríguez. He has also come in for criticism from the Balearic Government’s minister for families and social affairs, Catalina Cirer of the PP.
The local authorities in the Balearics have no jurisdiction over immigration – it is ultimately a matter for the Spanish Government. At municipal level, concerns are to do with security and with the costs of removing and storing boats and also removing items left by arriving migrants. Some 400 people have arrived on the three municipalities’ coasts over the past few days. The three town halls wonder where they are. They say there has been no communication from Rodríguez.
Cirer stresses that the first response must be by the government delegate. “He is the one who has to take the first step and call all those involved and to take measures on what needs to be done. We get no news. We often know more from the media or charities.”
Rodríguez insists that the Spanish Government is focused on managing the migratory phenomenon, “to which we must respond as a country”. “We are within a European community to which we have also turned to help us manage, as happens with other countries that are on the borders of Europe. We ask Europe to view this as a global phenomenon. And the Spanish Government asks the opposition to consider the reception of unaccompanied minors as a global phenomenon as well.”
In September, the Spanish Government, having recognised that the Balearics represented a main migratory route, accepted that the region was “saturated” by migrant minors, but ruled out urgent measures. Possible solutions are dependent on the unblocking of reform of immigration law. Political arguments have meant that nothing has so far been achieved in this regard.
Meanwhile, there continues to be the added complication of the breakdown in diplomatic relations between Spain and Algeria. This is preventing deportation.
