Caught out trying to smuggle dozens of illegal immigrants into Spain’s Costa Almeria

CHARGED: Four North Africans face charges of crimes against the rights of foreign citizens CREDIT: Policia Nacional Almeria

FOUR North Africans are under arrest for trying to smuggle dozens of illegal immigrants into Spain’s Costa Almeria.
The four men were skippering two boats, one with 18 Algerians on board and one carrying a group of 17 Moroccans, which the Spanish authorities found drifting off the provincial coast.
According to police, the organisations the four detainees worked for had started the hunt for people willing to pay to make the crossing to Spain in Algeria at the end of April.
Police said each immigrant had handed over the equivalent of between €1,500 and €2,000. They were then given different days for meeting at nightfall on beaches in Oran and Sidi Dejoud to set out for Spain.
Police investigations, carried out with the support of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), as well as interviews with all the boats’ passengers, led to the identification of the four as the individuals responsible for the navigation and steering.
They have been charged with crimes against the rights of foreign citizens. This brings the total number of people changed with the same crimes in Almeria so far this year to 16.

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Written by

Cathy Elelman

Cathy Elelman is the local writer for the Costa de Almeria edition of the Euro Weekly News.

Based in Mojacar for the last 21 years, Cathy is very much part of the local community and is always well and truly up on all the latest news and events going on in this region of Spain.

Her top goals are to do the best job she can informing the local English-speaking community, visitors to the area and the wider world about about the news in Almeria, to learn something new every day, and to embrace very new challenge this fast-changing world brings her way.

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