The Civil Guard arrested a 21-year-old man on Tuesday, October 18, as part of Operation Rizadamar, as the alleged perpetrator of a crime against the rights of foreign citizens, who was piloting a wooden boat equipped with a motor and was identified among the occupants inside the boat.
The events occurred at approximately 09:40 hours when the Civil Guard received a notice from a fishing boat that was sailing between the islet of Roque del Este towards the dock of Órzola, which spotted a boat. The Operations Service Center (COS) alerted the citizen security patrol of the Main Post of the Civil Guard of Costa Teguise to attend.
The agents went to the aforementioned dock and spotted through binoculars about 500 meters from the coast the aforementioned boat, which was piloted by the detainee and with the firm purpose of reaching land.
Once the boat arrived at the dock, the Civil Guard agents who had observed one of the occupants handling the helm of the boat, at the time of disembarkation proceeded to the identification and subsequent arrest, finding among his belongings useful materials for navigation such as a GPS and various documentation which is being studied.
In addition, the boat, made of wood and with two outboard motors and with 47 people on board (including a woman and a minor), did not comply with current regulations for navigation, even with all the
inscriptions and registration number erased, thus hindering the subsequent investigation regarding the point of departure and ownership.
Similarly, it lacked any safety element to make navigation viable, constantly endangering the lives of the people inside, as it did not have communication or evacuation and emergency systems, so in the event of engine failure or worsening weather conditions, the migrants would be abandoned to their fate. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning the danger for the occupants of this type of boat to be in permanent contact with the fuel canisters that are inside without any separation, not only because of a possible deflagration of the same, but because of the very contact of the fuel with salt water that causes burns of some consideration.
It should be noted that in the surroundings of the dock of Órzola there have been several shipwrecks with fatal results, because it is a rocky area with strong waves, depending on the prevailing weather conditions in the area, so the journey of these migrants was not free of risk at any time.
The detainee, together with the proceedings instructed for this purpose, was placed at the disposal of the Court in charge of the Guard of Arrecife, decreeing his imprisonment.
