Palma.The North African immigrants were taken to Guardia Civil headquarters in Manacor yesterday to await transfer to Palma. Once in the capital, judicial sources said, it is expected the immigrants will appear before a magistrate.
After the court in Palma has heard the declarations of the men, the immigrants will be taken to a holding centre in Valencia or Barcelona prior to their being returned to their country of origin.
Alarm
The alarm over the arrival of the immigrants had first been raised on Wednesday after a 5-metre-long boat was found washed upon the rocks in Cala S'Almunia in Santanyi.
Police found discarded wet clothes inside the small fibre-glass boat, leading them to suspect that it may have been used by illegal immigrants to slip into Majorca from North Africa.
This is the fourth time that illegal immigrant boats have reached Majorca this year. The last occasion was on 8th August, when eight Algerians arrived in waters off the island of Cabrera having set out from the port of Dellys.
Meanwhile at a press conference on the arrests held yesterday, Central Government delegate in the Balearics Ramón Socías acknowledged that this latest illegal arrival had escaped detection by radar equipment set up at Cap de Ses Salines to trap unauthorised vessels approaching the Islands. Socías said that this would have due to the minimal size of the boat and the fact that thermal imaging cameras would not have picked up its weak motor. The radar system has only picked up two of this year's four arrivals.
Effectiveness of just 50 percent is worrying, said Socías, adding that adjustments need to be made.
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