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The Guardia Civil, Spain’s national police force, has arrested nine illegal immigrants who stand accused of threatening at knife-point sailors of a Dutch tugboat who had just rescued them from two boats in the Atlantic, forcing them to change course for the Spanish Canary Islands, sources from the interior ministry said.
The nine mutinous migrants had been a part of a larger group of 78 people who on the morning of Monday, October 2nd, departed from the North African coast in two separate boats in an attempt to reach the Canary Islands. The incident began after the Dutch ship “Vose Pace”—after realizing the precariousness of the two ships—rescued both, only to have some of those on board the second one threatening them with deadly weapons, El Debate reports.
The threat of violence came, apparently, because the Dutch ship, having rescued the two boats in waters under Moroccan rescue responsibility, received directions from Rabat to return the boats to the southern Moroccan port of Tan-Tan.
Shortly thereafter, when some of the migrants realized that they were being taken back to Morocco, they became “highly aggressive” toward crew members. Sources from the police, the Guardia Civil, and Maritime Rescue said that a portion of migrants initiated a “mutiny,” against the captain and members of the crew, threatening to stab them if they refused to change course.
It was at this point that the rescue crew acquiesced to the knife-wielding migrants’ demands and headed for the Port of Puerto del Rosario in Fuerteventura, one of the eight main islands in the Canary archipelago.
Upon arrival at the Spanish port, after confirming that everyone on board the two boats was in good health—and following other necessary inspections–officers from the Guardia Civil arrested the nine mutineers on piracy charges, AFP reported, citing police sources. The investigation is ongoing.
This particular episode comes after an incident in late August that saw 168 migrants begin rioting while on board a Guardia Civil patrol boat that had been anchored for several days in the port of Nouadhibou, Mauritania after being refused entry. Guardia Civil officers were forced to shoot several shots into the air to bring the heated situation to an end.
Despite the particularly dangerous nature of the West African Route—the stretch of the Atlantic Ocean that links Western African countries to the Spanish archipelago—the Canary Islands for years now have consistently attracted illegal migrants looking to make Europe their home.
According to data from the Spanish interior ministry, some 14,976 illegal migrants made landfall on the Canary Islands so far this year, representing a 20% increase compared to the same period last year.
Some 140 migrants have lost their lives on the West African Route so far this year, figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed in September. As The European Conservative reported in July, 51 individuals, including three children and eleven women, died after their ship capsized while it was en route to the Spanish archipelago.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/spain-illegal-migrants-arrested-for-mutiny/