Writing / Efe
A total of 60 immigrants have been detained upon arriving in the Canary Islands in just 24 hours aboard four boats, two arriving in Fuerteventura, one in Lanzarote and another in Gran Canaria, where yesterday they were still looking for the occupants of a fifth small boat that was found stranded and empty during the past morning. Fuerteventura was, as usual, the destination of most of these immigrants, registering the arrival of 48 people who were traveling in two boats intercepted this afternoon in Fuerteventura waters by two Maritime Rescue ships, according to sources from the Civil Guard. One of them was carrying 37 men of sub-Saharan origin and the other 11 from the Maghreb, including two minors, according to the sources, who reported that the first group was disembarked in the port of Gran Tarajal, in the municipality of Tuineje, at 3:00 p.m., and twenty minutes later the second group was. All were in good condition except one who had to be evacuated in an ambulance because he was feeling unwell, they specified.
They also highlighted that among the Maghreb expedition, the two skippers of the boat were identified, who were arrested upon arrival at port accused of a crime against the rights of foreign citizens. The 48 immigrants intercepted in Fuerteventura join others located yesterday morning heading to Gran Canaria, 5 Maghrebi detected at around half past seven by a mobile radar 3 miles from the coast of Mogán, south of the island, aboard a small boat that was intercepted by Civil Guard agents in another Maritime Rescue boat.
Lanzarote
In addition, hours before, two more immigrants were arrested from a small boat that was found last Sunday in Lanzarote, where another five occupants of the boat, all Maghrebi, had previously been arrested. The two immigrants, adult males and of Maghrebi origin, were located at around 5:00 p.m. in the town of Máguez, in the municipality of Haría. The area known as Malpaís de La Corona, in the north of said municipality, was the scene of the arrests of the occupants of that boat, which was found stranded in the area near Caletón Blanco. These last two immigrants join the other five already arrested, adult males between 20 and 30 years old (four Maghrebi and one Mauritanian) who were identified in the Civil Guard facilities of Costa Teguise and transferred to the Police Station in Arrecife for their immediate admission to an Internment Center.
A security device was still searching the surroundings yesterday in search of the other 11 crew members of that small boat, which is estimated to have transported a total of at least 18 people, according to Civil Guard data. The armed institute also reported that it has initiated a search on the coast of the Gran Canaria municipality of Mogán after finding a boat stranded and empty, which is assumed to have transported an as yet undetermined number of immigrants. The presence of the boat was detected in waters near the coast of the municipality of Mogán by a mobile unit of the Comprehensive Exterior Surveillance System, which determined that Civil Guards were deployed to the place by land and found it already stranded at the mouth of the Medio Almud ravine.
A search device was deployed in the surroundings of the ravine to try to find the occupants of the small boat, although so far there has been no trace of them, the sources added.
