Whatever happens between now and the end of the year, 2024 will be remembered as a record year for a surge of a record year for the wave of immigrants arriving immigrants arriving by boat to the Balearic archipelago. And specifically to Ibiza and Formentera. So far, at least 3,432 people have arrived in 213 boats, figures that far exceed those recorded in 2023. To the increase in the number of arrivals must be added another factor for analysis: the new methods used by the illegal immigration mafia to surprise investigators every now and then. At the beginning of September, for example, an unprecedented event occurred when a hundred migrants disembarked from a of migrants from a fishing boat in the area of Cala Codolar in the area of Cala Codolar in the municipality of Sant Josep.
From surprise to surprise, on Saturday, a powerful pneumatic powerful inflatable boat arrived in Formentera coming supposedly from Algeria. The images of the immigrants disembarking es Caló have generated confusion and fueled the theory of the mother ship from which the immigrants would depart on a much shorter and less dangerous route. As can be seen in the video accompanying this news item, the operation was extremely fast. In just 20 seconds, the immigrants disembarked and the boat left at full speed. This procedure breaks with the modus operandi used by these illegal groups, which usually use small boats to complete the Balearic route, either to Ibiza and Formentera or also to Mallorca and on occasion and by mistake Menorca.
Mother ship?
“It’s possible they had help. But it is also possible that they made the round trip at too great a risk. “explained specialized sources to La Voz de Ibiza. Two reasons sow doubts. The number of people on board, which complicated the crossing enormously. And the fuel needed to make the journey. And both are related. Regarding the number of people, the captains consulted by this newspaper expressed their doubts about the feasibility of making the crossing with so much weight and so little space for so many hours. “It’s crazy, but it’s possible they did it. There was a southerly wind that day and that helps navigation, but the risk of shipwreck is notable,” explains an expert captain. He is the only one to express caution. Other captains who do the charter season in Ibiza are conclusive. “It is impossible, they have had help for sure”, they say from Marina Botafoc.
The journey from Algeria to Formentera is 130 nautical miles and, in an inflatable boat loaded with 22 people (21 immigrants who were captured on land by the Guardia Civil in the area of Es Caló, plus the skipper), the chances of success are slim, argue the experts consulted. In addition to the lack of space for so many hours and the excessive weight for a boat of this type, there is also the risk of running out of gasoline. According to the time they arrived in Formentera, they left the previous midnight from Algeria, taking approximately 16 hours. An inflatable like the one used, with a power of between 150 and 175 horsepower, and about 7 meters long, loaded to the brim, cannot sail at more than 8 knots on average.
Fuel
The fuel loaded in the tank of this type of inflatable can be enough to complete the one-way trip. In normal sailing conditions. “It is difficult to calculate the performance with that weight and so many people on board,” admit the captains consulted by La Voz de Ibiza. What is clear to them is that they needed more fuel than could fit in the tank. This meant more cargo and even less space. To make the round trip with guarantees they had to load, they calculate, at least five drums of 25 liters each. This takes up more than one square meter. In the images there is no trace of the presence of the fuel drums, which, however, does not allow us to conclude that they were not hidden in the boat’s hatches. “It is likely that they received help, but we cannot conclude this because they may have hidden the additional fuel in any part of the boat and thus had more space to bring more immigrants,” they reasoned.
“Crazy.”
“It’s really crazy. It’s extremely high-risk, coming loaded like that from Algeria.” It’s our daily bread. So is coming with a five-meter boat loaded to the brim. The hypothesis is inevitable: Did they come from Algeria, did they leave from a mother ship halfway or did they receive some kind of help? Neither the Government Delegation, the Civil Guard nor the National Police have wanted to comment on the matter. To date, the official version defended by the authorities is that there is no record of mother ships on the high seas and that the boats departed from the coasts of North Africa. And if there were a mother ship, it would be known with the surveillance systems.
Theft of semi-rigid
Another fact that may have a connection with this new modality is the one that occurred at the end of August, when a group of immigrants arrived to the south of Formentera with a powerful semi-rigid boat, which had been stolen days before in the port of Denia.
The Guardia Civil suspects that the skipper of a skiff took the ferry from Ibiza, stole the boat and moved to Algeria to transport 28 people, who were rescued by Salvamento Marítimo before making landfall in Formentera. Since they did not make landfall, it is not known if the idea was also a round trip with a powerful boat that would have allowed them to repeat the journey.
The second most dangerous
The journalist, migration specialist and human rights researcher, Helena Maleno, has warned on Monday that the Balearic migratory route, since last year, ” has established itself as the most dangerous migratory route after the Atlantic”, which is the Canary Islands.
Maleno, who began his speech at a conference in Palma asking for a minute of silence for the 11 missing on Friday in a boat from Algeria and which rescued two minors and a young man of 21 years 100 miles from Mallorca, explained that the Balearic route is changing and welcoming different profiles of immigrants. He has pointed out that it transits people of more nationalities than when it started around 2020, “with potential asylum profiles, and women and children”.“The Balearic Islands is already a border territory; that is a challenge for the authorities and for the citizens,” Maleno warned at the conference.
Borders and human rights: What’s happening on the southern border? which he gave at Can Oleo, in the framework of the first edition of the University Expert Course on Migrations in the Mediterranean of the UIB.
Missing
A similar situation has been experienced weeks ago, with the disappearance of a disappearance of a patera that departed from the coasts of Tipasa, in Algeria, heading for Europe, with a first stop in Formentera, as published by La Voz de Ibiza.
14 people set sail for their dream, including at least two minors. However, the small blue fiberglass boat with a 40-horsepower engine never arrived in Spain. To the despair of the relatives who were waiting for them in Formentera, the cell phones gave signals, but no one answered on the other end. Therefore, the hypothesis of a shipwreck gained strength.
