Spain arrests human traffickers after migrant deaths

Madrid, Feb 24 (AFP/APP): Spanish police said Wednesday they have arrested 14 suspected human traffickers who transported over 200 migrants to the Canary Islands, including three who died during the crossing, one aged just nine.

The 13 men and one woman were “identified by the migrants as the organisers of the crossing and the people charged with navigating” the boats that were used, police said in a statement.

The suspects, aged between 19 and 45, are nationals of Morocco, Mali, Gambia, Mauritania and Guinea, a police spokesman said. They allegedly transported 237 people, including 26 minors, to the Canaries from Africa in December and January “without any safety measures, without safety jackets, food or water,” the statement said.

Due to the “squalid conditions” of the crossings, three people died, including a nine-year-old boy whose body was thrown overboard into the Atlantic Ocean, it added.

The boy’s mother tried to kill herself by throwing herself into the ocean and was taken to a hospital in the Canaries “in a state of shock” after the migrants were rescued by Spain’s coast guard. The suspects are believed to have charged each migrant between 2,000 and 2,500 euros ($1,650-$2,060) per trip on their boats.

All 14 are accused of the crime of favouring illegal immigration. The six suspects who were involved in the crossings where three migrants died are also accused of involuntary manslaughter. Three of the suspects also face charges of membership in an organised crime group.

A total of 23,023 migrants landed on the Canary Islands last year after making the dangerous Atlantic crossing from north Africa, a figure eight times higher than the 2,687 who arrived in 2019, according to the interior ministry.

Migrant arrivals on the Atlantic archipelago surged after increased patrols along Europe’s southern coast dramatically reduced crossings to the continent via the Mediterranean.

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