Court upholds sentences for small boat 'skippers'

One of the two, who was sentenced to five and a half years by the Provincial Court in Palma, had previously entered Spain illegally in 2022. He couldn't be returned because of the breakdown in diplomatic relations between Spain and Algeria. (This continues to prevent repatriation of illegal immigrants.)

However, he went back of his own volition before making the second trip by sea in January 2023. The other man was sentenced to five years.

On January 4, a six-metre boat left Boumerdès in Algeria with 18 people, two of them minors. The courts have found it proven that they piloted the boat in turns (there was video evidence) but not that they were not part of an Algerian illegal immigration 'mafia'.

On the trip, life jackets were not provided to all passengers, who didn't have food for the journey. The sentence therefore took into account the risk to the lives of the passengers.