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ARCHIVED - Spanish government maintains 11 Jihadist terror suspects have entered Spain masquerading as pateras migrants
The Government has responded to political accusations that Jihadist terrorists could be slipping into Spain masquerading as illegal immigrants
412 people linked to jihadist terrorism have been arrested in Spain since 2012, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
Enquiries made by Vox, a far-right political party in Spain that has been gaining popularity in recent years principally for its bold statements against immigrants among other things, have brought to light the possibility that jihadist terrorists are getting into the country on immigrant boats (‘pateras’).
In response to a request for information on the matter and the measures taken to deal with the problem, the Spanish government has admitted that 11 people have been arrested and remanded in custody since 2018 for terrorist links or related crimes after arriving illegally on “pateras” or in small boats as irregular migrants, and lacking paperwork granting them the right to either enter Spain or be in the Schengen area.
Vox has queried the government’s plans regarding bringing in effective policies to crack down on terrorism infiltrated via immigration and tracking of immigrants from countries with a strong jihadist element, to which the government has responded that the police have no legal obligation to keep track of illegal immigrants’ location once they have been identified and released.
It is also important to stress that the majority of irregular migrants reaching Spain are looking for work and have no links of any sort to terrorism or jihadism, but Vox has gained significant support by raising questions such as this and responding to the changing demographics of Spain, in which migrant populations are growing.
There are concerns amongst the native population about the scale of irregular migration into the country, a situation which showed an ugly public face last year when migrants were housed by voluntary organisations for quarantining in private properties during the early days of the covid crisiss, there were ugly scenes in Murcia with the public protesting outside of these houses, demanding the migrants be moved and jeering when they came out of the properties to be transferred to alternative accommodation; this is the fear on which Vox is building its support.
More than 41,800 immigrants arrived in Spain in 2020, 29 per cent more than in 2019, and there are concerns among the far-right political party over the number of potential terrorists who could be slipping through the net. They have asked, although the non-legislative proposal was turned down, for the government to declare the mass arrival of illegal immigrants to be a ‘situation of interest for National Security’.
As part of Spain’s membership of the EU, strict policies are in place which oblige the Spanish Government to release migrants after a specific period should the Interior Ministry fail in its efforts to prove the country of origin of the migrants and extradite them.
The principal problem in the last year is that extradition attempts have largely failed, due to the closure of external borders of Morocco and Algeria, two of them the principal emissors of irregular migrants arriving in Spain. The normal migrant transit centres in which these migrants are housed in Spain have also been closed as there is no point detaining migrants if they cannot be repatriated, leading to an increase in the number of particularly Algerians willing to make the crossing to Spain, in turn, encouraging a growth in the activities of criminal groups which arrange the transport both across the Mediterranean and onward into Europe.
As a result, increased numbers of migrants are reaching the French coastline and attempting to cross into the UK in small boats, all arranged by the mafias…
Image: Archive. Marine Rescue Services rescuing irregular migrants out at sea