Two boats with a total of 35 migrantsof Sub-Saharan and North African originwere intercepted early Tuesday on the island of Formentera. Monday has arrived another boat to the pitiusa minor, with 17 people of North African origin on board. The flow of migrants does not stop, being Formentera the most affected island of the current crisis with menas.
THE Pitiusas -Ibiza and Formentera- are becoming the new favorite destination for boats arriving on the coasts of the Balearic Islands. So far this year, they have already received more than 1,500 illegal immigrantshe 89% of them of Algerian originon board a hundred boatswhich represents a 62.7% of the 150 who arrived on the archipelago.
This new trend confirms that at least in 2024 there has been a change in the arrival point of boats arriving in the Balearic Islands. Previously it was Majorca the Balearic island which concentrated most of the arrivals of cayucos, with a 80% of the total. However, this year the arrivals have been distributed differently and now it is Ibiza and Formentera which represent the most 60% of total immigrant and boat arrivals.
August was a record month with the arrival of up to 581 illegal immigrants on board 34 boats. The numbers have continued to grow and are causing a service overload care for immigrants.
Córdoba then explained that In 2023, Formentera had ten unaccompanied minors under guardianshipwhile So far this year he is already 80 years old and it is very possible that they will exceed 100 depending on how this last quarter, historically the most active in this sense, ends.
In this sense, he emphasized that the island institution has had jurisdiction over minors since 1997, but The situation is now “very different” to that of this period, since “this boom “the migration has been taking place for five years.” According to the president, this means that the Consell is diverting services and resources that should be used for the inhabitants of the island.
Formentera will return the powers
The Council of Formentera, chaired by Llorenç Córdoba, announced that it would restore the powers of guardianship of unaccompanied foreign minors given the wave of menas arriving by boat this year on the small island of Pitiusa and the impossibility of meeting the financial expenses linked to their care and subsistence, which this year will amount to fifth of the budget of the island institution.
The reason for the opening of procedures for the restitution of powers in matters of minors to the Department of Social Affairs and Family of the Regional Executive is fundamentally economical: the cost of guardianship of the 80 minors welcomed this year is close to 8 million euros per year, more than considerable amount for a Consell whose The general budget for 2024 is 43.5 million euros.
