Fernando Grande-Marlaska met at the beginning of March with his counterparts from Italy, Cyprus, Greece and Malta to try to mitigate the illegal immigration that plagues these countries. The objective of that meeting was to take measures that are decisive and, above all, effective in the face of the reality with which the countries of the southern Mediterranean have to struggle.
Despite the concessions of Sánchez ‘handing over’ the Sahara, Morocco has not fulfilled its part of containing immigration and the flow of migrants does not stop growing. According to the latest report from the Ministry of the Interior, Spain has become a country that finds it difficult to contain irregular immigration by sea and land.
In fact, the arrival of migrants to the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands has increased by 48% in 2023 (3,000 more undocumented people) in just one year, since it has gone from 6,359 last year to 9,409 in 2023. They did so in 744 boats According to The latest balance of irregular immigrant entries published this Friday by the Ministry of the Interior, from January 1 to August 31, 21,780 migrants have entered Spain, the majority by sea: 21,025 people, which represents 22, 5 percent more than in the first eight months of 2022, when 19,007 immigrants arrived on the coast.
The downward trend registered in the arrival of small boats for a good part of the year broke, however, in the first half of July and has risen with the passing of the fortnights until the end of August with a high increase in entries through the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. Despite the increase in entries through the Mediterranean coast this summer, the Canary Islands continues to be the majority destination for boats with migrants. In these first eight months, 11,439 people have arrived in 212 boats to the islands compared to 10,637 in the same previous period. This figure represents 7.5% more than in the previous year as a result of the increase in arrivals in the last fortnight of August.
Meanwhile, in these eight months of the year the largest increase compared to 2022 is in boat arrivals to the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, where 9,409 people have arrived in 744 boats, which means more than 3,000 more migrants and an increase of 48 %.
The data and the wave of migrants who have arrived on the coasts of Andalusia and Granada last weekend (700 in two days according to the Civil Guard) have rescued old claims by the State Security Forces and Bodies. Also the groups.
From the majority association of the Armed Institute, Jucil, there is a special reproach to the acting Government. Its communication secretary, Agustín Leal, harshly criticized the immigration policy and also the data.
“You cannot apply for asylum to those who enter illegally because more will come, the knock-on effect of our lax migration policy reaches from Asia to half of Africa. We must apply the law, as we have it, to deal with this” , reflect.
“The transfer from Morocco to the southern coast of Spain in the ‘narco’ boats costs between eight and ten thousand euros and they are mostly Moroccan and Algerian,” concludes Leal.