The complaint of the President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, regarding the collapse of the centres for migrant minors in the Valencian Community, who has gone so far as to state that they are at 150 or 160% of their capacity and that minors are “overcrowded”, has its answer in the increase in boat arrivals in recent times. But the more people manage to reach Spanish soil, the more More and more migrants are being left behind.
In the first five months of the year, they died 55% more migrants compared to the same period last year. A total of 175 people disappeared at sea during their journey to Almería, Alicante, Murcia and the Balearic Islands in 2024, compared to 113 in 2023, according to a report by the Caminando Fronteras collective supported by the Ministry of Social Rights. , Consumption and Agenda.
This assumes 62 extra lives which were lost in the Mediterranean. And the worst is yet to come, since it is during the second half of the year that more and more boats leave the Algerian coast.
Last year, 434 people died on this road, with a sharp increase in victims during the second part of 2023, which lasted for months like November with 147 missing.
The one known as the Algerian road is the second deadliest of the western Euro-African border, with 1.15 daily deaths from January to May, only behind the Atlantic route that targets the Canary Islands, which totaled 4,808 people missing in the first five months. The routes of the Alboran Sea with 47 deaths and the 23 of the Strait of Gibraltar complete the grim list.
The Algerian road
The main migrants who undertake this journey come from Algeria, although the entity has recorded victims of up to 17 nationalities among all the routes.
“On board motorboats, the people who decided to settle set their sights on the coast of Almeria. However, in recent times, in order to avoid the violence of immigration control, the route has expanded spatially: the Balearic Islands and Valencia have become new destinations, more difficult and dangerous for the lives that try to reach them,” they emphasize from Caminando Fronteras.
The lack of resources deployed to search for ships in the area and the late warning of risky situations due to fear of expulsions maintain “the invisibility of the route”. Many boats disappear without leaving a trace, which leaves families in a situation of uncertainty when their loved ones disappear,” they lament.
From 2006 to today
Caminando Fronteras explains how this route was born almost 20 years ago. Thus, they emphasize that departures from the Algerian coasts began to be more frequent. from 2006 on two Mediterranean routes, the central one towards Italy and the western one towards the Spanish coast.
The following period, between 2008 and 2009, is defined as the “criminalization process”It was in these years that the externalization of borders with Europe took place and the Algerian state began to strengthen the control of exits and entries, both for nationals and foreigners, with prison sentences and fines applied even to minors.
THE “repair” This happened in 2012, when departures to the Spanish state multiplied, with a great impact on the Algerian national media. The consolidation of the route would not arrive until 2018-2019. It was at this time that the arrivals of Algerians on the Spanish coasts increased and the communities that crossed this route did so more and more frequently. “The militarization of northern Morocco displaces Maghreb communities to try to pass through Algeria,” they point out.
The 2020 pandemic also affected migrants, impoverishing them and creating a political conflict that “forced part of the Algerian population to leave the country.” From 2021 to today, the collective stands out “powerlessness in the face of danger” migrants. And they point out that even if the majority community is Algerian, the presence of people from other nationalities such as Syria, Morocco, Mali, Palestine, Yemen, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Cameroon is increasing.
“The greater diversity of nationalities on the road is a symptom of the militarization and the attempt to close the Alborán and Estrecho roads. lack of resources activated to search for ships This is one of the explanatory factors for the increase in the number of victims in recent years,” they denounce.
