Spanish Coast Guard Intercepts “Harragas” (Illegal Immigrants) Hailing From Algeria

Thirteen illegal Algerian immigrants arrived at Tarifa island in the province of Cadiz, southern Spain, according to what was reported by the Spanish newspaper “Laarathon” on Monday. They are about to get off a traditional fishing boat, it is not excluded that it sailed secretly from a beach in western Algeria.

• The Spanish daily stated that the location and track of these clandestine immigrants were determined and controlled through the integrated external monitoring system, so that the Civil Guard forces would move and arrest them, noting that after the investigations with these immigrants ended, they were transferred to a temporary detention center for foreigners who are in the Illegal status pending deportation to their country of origin, in light of the continued closure of “Harraga” detention centers due to the dire circumstances of the Corona virus pandemic.

This is the second incident of its kind after the illegal sea crossing of eight other Algerians who were intercepted off the coast of Cabrera on the fourth of April.
• These operations come at a time when the Spanish authorities began, in January of this year, to return the illegal Algerian immigrants to their countries of origin, after months of a tug of war about the best way to deal with the arrival of groups of “harragas” from Algeria.

• The Madrid authorities began to return hundreds of Algerian immigrants who arrived on the Iberian Peninsula, by boat in recent months.

The Spanish Ministry of the Interior organized the first trip to Algeria through the port of Ghazaouet in Tlemcen, which included 50 people, and the Algerian and Spanish parties agreed in the past few weeks on a plan to deport illegal immigrants present in Spanish soil back to Algeria.

The goal is to double the trips that include more than 50 immigrants every week, without setting an official date for these trips, which may concern the gradual return back home of at least 11,000 Algerian “Harragas” (illegal immigrants) present in Spain.