Date Published: 07/07/2020
ARCHIVED - 13 illegal migrants detained after landing in La Azohía
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
It’s believed that two are still at large although the number could be higher
Police are searching for at least two illegal immigrants who came ashore Tuesday morning on Playa de la Chapineta in La Azohía on the Cartagena coastline just before 08:00.
The men are believed to be Algerian.
Witnesses who saw the boat land say that the men scattered and disappeared off into the scrubland behind the beach, which leads up to Campillo de Adentro, and the Cabo de Tiñoso, an area with several arterial ramblas leading off into the surrounding countryside.
13 were detained, but it's believed that there are two, and possibly more, still missing according to the latest reports.
The men detained were taken to the port of Santa Lucia in Cartagena, where the Policía Nacional receive any migrants caught trying to enter Spain illegally via the Murcian coastline, first ensuring that they are given a medical checkover, before photographing and registering their arrival.
All migrants are now being given a Covid swab test.
There is obviously considerable concern about the arrival of illegal migrants at the moment due to the possibility that they may be Covid-positive; last week eight of the migrants who arrived in the region via the coast were found to be Covid positive.
This is causing a great deal of concern amongst local residents precisely due to situations such as this, as most of the new cases confirmed in the Murcia Region during the last two weeks have been due to the arrival of illegal migrants in small boats and imported cases such as that which has added 38 cases to the region’s total due to a flight from Bolivia which brought 3 positives to the region, causing an outbreak.
This morning Lorca council protested vociferously after the Covid-positive migrants who tried to escape from Santa Lucia hospital in Cartagena at the weekend were transferred to Lorca without the health authorities previously advising the local council.
Local police have also added their voices to the protests, complaining that resources are being stretched and local police put at risk by the lack of control at the moment, demanding that facilities be opened in which the migrants can be held until PCR tests confirm whether they are positive or not.
Migrant transit centres are temporarily closed so the Spanish government has no mechanism by which to repatriate those reaching Spanish soil illegally in small boats
During the state of alarm decreed by the coronavirus crisis, at least 2,545 migrants have irregularly entered Spain, of which 2,384 (94%) arrived by sea.
Illegal immigrants attempting to enter Spain in “pateras” or small boats, is a regular occurrence along the Spanish coast, migrants choosing the shorter routes across from the African coast via Morocco arriving in the various provinces of Andalucía, from Algeria and landing in Andalucía, Valencia region and the Murcia Region, or the longer routes from Algeria to the Balearic islands and a fourth across to the Canary Islands. All attempts are made to intercept the boats out at sea by the Spanish coastguard, which undertakes a major vigilance operation to prevent the pateras arriving undetected and their occupants disappearing off into the Spanish countryside.
All those intercepted are brought into Spanish ports, their medical condition assessed and the migrants taken to migrant transit centres(CIE) where they are temporarily held whilst attempts are made to repatriate them to their country of origin; 45 days is the maximum time permitted for this process, after which, if they cannot be repatriated, the Spanish government is obliged to release them onto Spanish soil. On average, only 36% of repatriation cases are successful.
The migrants are not given residency rights and are not allowed to work legally, which means that some end up being exploited or earning money illegally, and others continue their journey on to other European countries, France or Belgium where there are large established communities of migrants (and some trying to reach the UK) and other destinations.
The onset of the Covid crisis initially halted the flow of migrants, as both Algeria and Morocco closed their own external borders, but whilst this has the effect of limiting the number of migrants from entering via the African Continent, it also prevents the Spanish authorities from repatriating migrants who have successfully reached Spain.
Irregular migrants are normally held in a migrant transit centre for the 45 day period, but these were all closed during the state of emergency as the authorities could not repatriate the migrants. Algeria and Morocco are still closed off, so the centres in turn, remain closed.
But this hasn´t stopped the mafias who earn millions transporting irregular travellers across to Spain. In Morocco confinement of the Moroccan population is very strict, so very few boats are reaching the provinces of Cádiz, Málaga or Granada, but boats from Algeria are more numerous, reaching the coast of Almería, Murcia and the Balearic Islands, their numbers growing as word spreads that the Spanish Authorities cannot hold or repatriate those who reach Spain.
There are believed to be thousands of would-be migrants waiting for their chance to make the journey across into Europe, living in hidden encampments, and these have not escaped the Covid crisis which has engulfed the world, so recently, a number of the migrants reaching Spanish soil are testing Covid positive.
During the state of alarm decreed by the coronavirus crisis, at least 2,545 migrants have irregularly accessed Spain, of which 2,384 (94%) arrived by sea, according to data from the Interior Ministry. Most of them (1,412) arrived by boat on the shores of the Canary Islands.
Although the Covid cases in Spain have been largely brought under control by a strict lockdown, there have recently been a number of outbreaks, some of which are being attributed to illegal immigration, such as that of Navalmoral de la Mata (Cáceres), or that of a Red Cross reception center in Malaga.
In the case of Navalmoral de la Mata (Cáceres) a migrant who had arrived in Almería on 24th May had been transferred to a Red Cross centre in Cáceres along with a larger group of around 50 migrants, none of whom had been tested. Some of the other migrants who arrived in the same boat had been sent to Soria, and it was here that one of them tested positive for Covid. It wasn´t until five days after the migrants had been moved that the Cáceres authorities were informed that a positive had been found in Soria, and were warned to test all of those distributed amongst six houses for Covid, 20 of whom were found to be positive, having been in close contact with the “patient zero”. He walked out of the house and into the community and a search warrant had to be issued to track him down and bring him back into quarantine, sparking extreme concern in the local community.
In Málaga there were 103 cases at the Red Cross welcome centre, the origin believed to have been an aid worker who caught the virus whilst volunteering in the Canary Islands and who subsequently sparked off a major outbreak amongst staff at the centre in Málaga and many of the migrants the centre was sheltering.
The Canary Island of Fuerteventura only had two positives between April 23rd and June 17th, when an inflatable boat arrived from El Aaiún (Western Sahara) with 14 positive cases on board. And four days later, another boat came from the same port with 11 others.
And these are not isolated cases, there are many more, including our own in Murcia, which have this week caused a major stand-off between our regional government and the national government with several days of arguing, as well as causing upset amongst local residents in the locations in which they are being housed.
On Monday this week 7 Algerians reached Águilas in a small boat, two of them testing positive for Covid-19. They were put into quarantine and temporarily housed in an encampment alongside the Guardia Civíl installation in Águilas, provided by Cruz Roja. Four cases were also detected amongst 108 migrants who arrived in a dozen small boats at the weekend and were taken into Cartagena, adding to the one case detected earlier in the same week, from a separate boat arrival in Águilas.
In that case, 23 police officers were quarantined after coming in contact with the first individual.On Tuesday it was reported that the 14 year old covid-positive who had arrived in the first boat in Águilas and was being monitored in the Rafael Méndez hospital in Lorca, had tried to leave the hospital, causing distress for other patients and staff. The patient, who doesn´t speak Spanish, was described as “having caused damage in the hospital and being in a highly anxious state”, and although he didn´t succeed in escaping the hospital, staff later expressed their concern about the situation, saying that the “hospital is not a jail.”
Of the 108 migrants who arrived last weekend, the four positives were taken to hospital, whilst the remainder were located in temporary accommodation by the Cruz Roja and the Fundación Cepaim (which works to help refugees and migrants). Eight people, close contacts of the positive cases were put in quarantine.
At this point, the calls to find suitable accommodation intensified, the Mayoress of Cartagena meeting with the Government Delegate to the Region of Murcia (the highest representative of the Spanish state in the region who looks after the interests of the national Government, such as the Guardia Civíl, prisons, coast guard and government-run bodies), José Vélez to “insist” that the national Government provide more resource to help control the arrival of the pateras and resolve the issue of what happens once migrants reach these shores.
The Government Delegate wrote to the Murcian regional government requesting that the region provide accommodation for the migrants as the state-run migrant centre at Santomera (CIE) was closed. He stated in his letter that the same locations that had been used by the regional government to house the homeless during the state of emergency would be perfectly suitable for the purpose, (there were several problems at one of these locations in Mazarrón after the residents rioted on two occasions and unsettled locals).
However, the regional Minister of Health, Manuel Villegas, responded that the Delegation should have sufficient means for this itself and "if you do not have the capacity, you should ask for help".
By this point on Thursday, some of the migrants had endured the unpleasant experience of being heckled by residents of Los Nietos, where six immigrants were temporarily housed in calle Mújol, in a property owned by Cáritas. Rumours had spread that these were Covid positives, and there was a risk that locals could be infected. There were even rumours that one of the young men had escaped, and frightened residents gathered in the streets when cars came to transfer them to a Red Cross centre in Murcia on Thursday afternoon, heckling and shouting, as police separated them from the migrants. On Friday afternoon the president of the neighbour's association said that the residents were "not racist" but were "frightened" and criticised the lack of communication and explanations about what was happening for the neighbours.
In Murcia city residents in the district of la Fama where nine migrants who are close contacts of those who have tested positive and who had arrived in Cartagena were being housed in a property owned by Cruz Roja were also concerned, upset by the presence of two police cars and guard in the street outside the property in a residential area where the young men were being quarantined.
It was stressed that the young men were not being arrested, but simply offered a roof over their heads as they had nowhere else to go until they had completed a quarantine period and had not tested positive.
The Government Delegate issued a press statement on Thursday evening explaining that he could only hold any irregular migrants for 72 hours, as the only mechanism by which they can be detained for a further 45 days is the issuing of a judicial order for repatriation, after which they must be sent to the migrant transit centres, which are closed.
Finally, on Friday afternoon, it was announced that an agreement had been reached between the regional government, Government Delegate and Cruz Roja to temporarily house migrants who either tested positive or had been in close contact with others who had tested positive for a 14 day quarantine period.
Cruz Roja would undertake to house the migrants and the regional government would supply additional accommodation as required, with assistance and vigilance by the Policia Nacional.
The regional government stated that although illegal migration was the competence of the national Government, they were extremely concerned at the prospect of outbreaks in the resident population ( should Covid-positive migrants be left to wander freely) and were also concerned that residents not be disturbed (by the migrants being housed in unsuitable accommodation) as had occurred in Los Nietos, “we have offered our collaboration to prevent the sacrifice of Murcian residents during the lockdown being wasted”, they said.
However, this doesn´t resolve the problem that as long as the Migrant Transfer Centres remain closed there are no repatriation orders being issued and after 72 hours there is no legal mechanism to prevent illegal migrants who test negative being detained in Spain.
The róle of the humanitarian charitable organisations who will be looking after the migrants is to give medical assistance, help, advice and information and should those in their installations wish to leave then they can do so at any time; the only route by which they can be prevented is for the health department to obtain a judicial order should it be felt that they represent a health risk to the general public, which would only be done for those testing positive or held in quarantine.
Which is itself an added incentive for all those who are desperate to get to Spain to take advantage of this “window of opportunity” a point being seized on by Vox far-right politicians in other areas of the country.
Not all boats are detained. On Thursday Almería media reported that a woman carrying a baby and child had been found walking along the road close to where an empty boat was later found. Had she arrived alone? Had any of her undetected companions been Covid positive? How many more boats are reaching Spain undetected???????
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