RUN FOR IT!
Migrants dodge authorities after powering their dinghy on to a Spanish nudist beach
AS NUDIST sunbathers watched in bemusement, dozens of migrants jumped out of an inflatable dinghy and scattered at speed in all directions yesterday.
The group had been crammed into an inflatable dinghy which zoomed across the blue seas towards the golden beach in southern Spain.
They had been pursued by Spanish civil guards in a motor launch trying in vain to stop them reaching shore after setting off from Morocco.
But the 30-plus migrants had managed to give them the slip before tearing off their lifejackets and throwing them overboard in readiness for reaching dry land. Once at their destination, the group leapt out and ran off in all directions into the surrounding dunes and woodland to avoid capture.
Their dramatic arrival startled sleepy sunbathers, including nudists topping up their all-over tans, and distracted children who had been busy building sandcastles.
The desperate group landed on Del Canuelo beach near Tarifa after making the perilous crossing via the Strait of Gibraltar in their overloaded vessel, fitted with an outboard motor.
It is the latest incident highlighting how Spain has become the most popular main entry point to Europe for Africans looking for a new life. It also showed their determination not to get caught.
The storming of the popular tourist beach happened as a senior local official warned that parts of south Spain are being overwhelmed by a surge in migrant arrivals across the Mediterranean.
José Ignacio Landaluce, the mayor of Algeciras which is about 15 miles from Tarifa, said emergency help was required to cope with the arrivals.
He warned that his town was at the centre of a ‘new migrant crisis’ after 1,000 flooded in during the past week alone.
‘I hope the EU is working on a global policy on this,’ he said.
‘It may be our problem initially, but tomorrow, or in a week, or a month, it’ll be at the heart of Europe. There’s a lot of the summer left and there are thousands and thousands of migrants arriving on the coasts of north Africa and thousands and thousands more who have been waiting to cross for months or years.’
Algeciras, which has a population of 120,000, has been unable to house all those arriving this week, with some having to sleep on rescue boats and in police cells.
Referring to the Italian island which has been overrun with migrants, Mr Landaluce added: ‘We have to talk about the actions of people who come to our shores so that our area does not become the new Lampedusa of the western Mediterranean.’
A city council spokesman said more than 200 migrants had to sleep on the rescue boats which brought them to shore this week in Algeciras because there was nowhere to accommodate them.
‘The processing centre we have is overwhelmed,’ he said.
Algeciras overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar which separates Africa from Europe and measures just nine miles at its narrowest point.
The migrants are mainly fleeing poverty and violence in sub-Saharan Africa and come from countries including Guinea, Mali and Mauritania.
It is from the shores of Morocco that they set off on their dangerous attempts to reach Spain. Some 18,653 migrants reached Spanish shores between the beginning of this year and July 18, according to a count by the International Organisation for Migration.
That is almost as many as arrived there in the whole of 2017, eclipsing for the first time the numbers flowing through North Africa to Italy.
On Thursday, more than 600 migrants forced their way through the heavily fortified border fence between the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco using circular saws, shears and mallets to cut through the wire.
They hurled plastic bottles of excrement and quicklime at police. The Spanish Red Cross said there were no serious injuries among the migrants but 11 were taken to hospital for complaints such as cuts and possible fractures.
In the rush, 22 police officers were hurt, including four who were hospitalised for burns.
Out at sea, 40 migrants including two pregnant women have been stranded on a Tunisian ship for two weeks after being refused entry by its home country, Malta, France and Italy.
The 14-strong crew of the Sarost 5, currently off Tunisia, rescued them from a wooden boat which got into difficulties trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya.
Second-in-command Aymen Ourari told CNN that there were only food supplies for three or four days on board.
‘It will be at the heart of Europe’