Call for more help to tackle Balearic small boat crisis

Increase in rescues of immigrants and the boom in nautical tourism during the summer months adding to pressure

Call for more help to tackle Balearic small boat crisis

Between 1 January and 30 June 2025, 2,980 immigrants arrived in the Balearic Islands on 147 small boats, 3.5 times more than during the first half of last year | Photo: Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter

Humphrey CarterPalma02/07/2025 09:56Updated at 15:16
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The CCOO union has called for more resources to reinforce the Maritime Rescue Service in the Balearics in order to deal with the continued arrival of immigrants in small boats, which has reached almost 3,000 people in the first half of the year. In a statement, the union highlights the need to provide more staff to both the units and the Rescue Coordination Centre (CCS) in Palma, which has been without maintenance staff for six months, and calls for the renewal of its fleet and equipment.

Between 1 January and 30 June 2025, 2,980 immigrants arrived in the Balearic Islands on 147 small boats, 3.5 times more than during the first half of last year. In addition to the increase in rescues of immigrants arriving in small boats, there has been a boom in nautical tourism during the summer months and an increase in recreational boats, making the Balearics the area with the most coordinated interventions from the CCS in Palma.

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The CCOO is calling on the Maritime Safety and Rescue Society (Sasemar) to implement proactive policies and to find a solution to the harsh working conditions of the personnel involved in rescue operations. According to data collected from the Government Delegation, in the first six months of this year, at least 147 boats carrying irregular immigrants from Algeria have arrived in the Balearics.

In the same period in 2024, 844 people aboard 53 boats had reached the islands' shores or been rescued in nearby waters. In addition, the security forces are aware of the discovery of more than thirty bodies that could correspond to immigrants who died in shipwrecks. If the current trend of an increase in irregular immigrants arriving by boat continues, which stands at 243%, the total figure by the end of 2025 could approach 15,000 people.

In recent years, the European Union has established key institutions in the field of migration, such as the European Union Agency for Asylum or Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency) which the Balearic government has called on fir help. In the field of the fight against irregular migration, Spain collaborates especially with the authorities of the countries along the Atlantic and Western Mediterranean routes, offering technical support and developing a sustained effort of institutional capacity building in the countries of origin and transit.

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