Ben Pawlowski
THREE alleged people smugglers have been arrested in southern Spain after being accused of throwing 37 migrants into dangerous waters, five of whom died.
The suspects, two men and a woman, were detained in Cadiz and Granada following a joint operation between the Policia Nacional, the Guardia Civil, and Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency.
They are accused of operating a sophisticated smuggling network between Morocco and Spain, and being responsible for the death of five migrants who attempted to reach Spanish shores in November 2023.
The three suspects allegedly forced the migrants to jump off the high-speed boat, later found in Algeciras, into choppy waters, even though many did not know how to swim.
The passengers, who had paid sums ranging between €3,000 and €12,000 for the perilous journey, were threatened with machetes and violence.
National authorities later recovered the bodies of five migrants who had been forced overboard.
Over 6,600 people died attempting to reach Spain last year, the majority of whom attempted to reach the Canary Islands from Africa, widely regarded as the deadliest migration route in the world.
Other migrant crossings include travelling by boat from Morocco and Algeria to southern Spain, or attempting to infiltrate Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s two enclaves on the Moroccan coast.
Spain’s interior ministry reported that a record 55,618 migrants made the desperate journey in 2023 – almost double the number in 2022.
The numbers are set to increase this year – Spain received over 14,000 irregular migrants in the first two months of 2024, a colossal 354% increase on the same period last year.
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