Forty-three illegal immigrants detained by the Guardia Civil

There were four boats in all that there were detected between eleven o'clock on Wednesday night and two o'clock on Thursday morning. Three of the boats with 38 people arrived in Cabrera; the fourth, with five people, landed in Ses Salines in the area of Colonia Sant Jordi. This group was stopped at around eight o'clock yesterday morning; they were walking along the main Ses Salines road.

All 43 are said to be Algerian; six of them are believed to be minors. All were described as being in a healthy condition; they were attended to by the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) and IB-Salut health service personnel. The immigrants who landed in Cabrera were taken to the Guardia Civil command in Palma, while those in Ses Salines were taken to Manacor. They were then handed over to the National Police, who process illegal immigrant cases.

There has been a marked decrease in the number of illegal immigrant boats arriving in the Balearics this year. Eleven people were intercepted off Cala Figuera (Santanyi) at the end of July, a boat landed near Mahon in Minorca in the same month, and there were two people in a boat in the area of Cala Salada (Ibiza) in August. Last year, 23 boats arrived in the Balearics, there having been only three in 2016.