Spanish Coast Guards Intercept Three Batches Of Algerian “Harragas”

In the early hours of Monday morning, the patrols of the Maritime Service of the Spanish Civil Guard intercepted three traditional-made boats equipped with 80-horsepower engines carrying 38 illegal immigrants of Algerian nationality, aged between 16 and 37 years, who set off from Ain Franin beach in the heart of the Cristel forest east of Oran, on their way to the southern coast of Spain.

According to informed sources, the Spanish Civil Guard thwarted the attempts by these young men to enter into the Iberian Peninsula, after the period of secret sailing between the coast of Oran and its Spanish counterpart lasted about 17 full hours, according to what was reported by the local newspaper “Alvaro de Ciota” in the province of Granada.

The “harragas” or illegal immigrants were divided into three boats, the first was a rubber one, carrying 13 Algerian youths, including a minor, the second was a traditional wooden boat carrying 14 immigrants, most of them in their fourth decade of life, and the third wooden boat had 11 young men wearing diving suits.

The same sources revealed, that the arrested migrants were intercepted 20 nautical miles south of Motril.

Everyone of them was taken under heavy guard by the maritime service patrols to the port of Motril in the Andalusia region in southern Spain, where tests were conducted on them to ensure that they were free from the Corona virus.

Then, it was decided to transfer them to a center in the “Capilera” region, supervised by the Spanish Red Cross, as dictated by precautionary measures to curb the spread of the new Corona virus, due to the continued closure of centers for illegal immigrants in Spain, and local leaks said in this context, that all those arrested by the Spanish authorities hailed from the Algerian provinces of Chlef and Djelfa.

They sailed en masse from Ain Franin beach after the barons of clandestine immigration exploited the calmness of the sea to send several boats towards Spain.

This is the second incident of its kind in a matter of less than three days, following the announcement of the Spanish maritime rescue services that they intercepted a traditional-made boat carrying ten illegal Algerian immigrants on the coasts of Cartagena belonging to the Murcia region.

The illegal Algerian immigrants whose boat was intercepted are adults and are in good health, noting that they were transferred to the “Escombreras” region of Cartagena, where they were subjected to tests to detect the possibility of infection with the Covid-19 virus, according to the health protocol in force.