The Balearic Islands began 2026 with a sharp increase in irregular sea arrivals of migrants, in a context of a general decline in the rest of Spain. Between January and March, the Islands registered a 32.7% increase compared to the same period last year, while Spain as a whole experienced a 63.8% decrease and the Canary Islands an even more pronounced drop of 85.3%. The data point to a displacement of migratory flows towards the Algerian route, which in recent years has been gaining importance, positioning the Balearic Islands in a central role.

The Balearic Islands have started 2026 with a sharp increase in irregular maritime arrivals of migrants, in a context of a generalized decrease in the rest of the State. Between January and March, the Islands registered a 32.7% increase compared to the same period last year, while Spain as a whole experienced a 63.8% drop and the Canary Islands, an even more pronounced fall of 85.3%. The data points to a displacement of migratory flows towards the Algerian route, which in recent years has been gaining importance to place the Balearic Islands in a central position.

The Palma City Council has reported that from this Tuesday, the number of Local Police officers will be increased in the queues that form at the Citizen Service Offices due to the large influx of people. They have also urged the Spanish government delegation to mobilize National Police officers in the same way. However, what the Martínez government does not plan to reinforce is the service of attention, given the avalanche of migrant people who come to the offices since the regularization process began.

The Civil Guard has opened an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the death of two bodies found on the beaches of Formentera.

The Balearic Government maintains its tug-of-war with the State over the distribution of migrant minors and already warns that it will return to the courts if the Spanish government approves a new decree to extend the current system. This was announced this Friday by the Executive's spokesperson, Antoni Costa, after the Governing Council, in a press conference marked by the firmness of his speech.

The Spanish Maritime Rescue Service has deployed a search operation in the southern area of ​​Cabrera after receiving a report of a missing boat carrying 30 migrants, which disappeared three days ago. The alert was issued by the NGO Alarm Phone, which assists migrants in distress in the Mediterranean, through a message posted on its social media account. According to the organization, the boat departed from the coast of Boumerdès last Saturday with 30 people on board. Sources from the Maritime Rescue Service confirmed to Europa Press that an active search is underway in the area, involving two Frontex aircraft flying over southern Cabrera. In addition, notices to mariners are being issued asking them to report any sightings of the boat, although so far no sightings have been made. The search continues, while authorities and NGOs stress the urgency of locating the missing persons to prevent a tragedy.

"Only Vox can clean up what's there"Vox will clean house." Thus, quite naturally, employing two languages ​​within the same sentence—one to satisfy the loose ends coming from Palma and the other to remind himself a little of the one he speaks every day—Esteve Sureda, spokesperson for the far-right party in Manacor, referred to the municipality's need for cleanliness. He wasn't talking, however, about papers, trash, overflowing containers, or abandoned street furniture. He was talking about people. In any case, the conflict, the problem, and the row are theirs, those who made the video recalling "our customs" and "our godfathers" without hesitation to speak a language they never spoke. What, for him, should be "Mallorcan identity"? The far-right's cynicism is outrageous. The alarms, however, are all going off because of racism and the The xenophobia of this party, which shamelessly replicates the dehumanizing patterns of 1930s Nazism, culminated, it must be remembered, in one of the most shameful episodes in human history: industrialization.

One of the best pieces of news these days has been the state government's announcement, twenty years after the last one, of a new regularization process for undocumented migrants residing in Spain. This is excellent news in terms of human rights and citizenship, even though the denial of human rights, including genocide, has become socially accepted today.

When Romina received her degree in digital communication in Argentina, she went out into the street in costume with her friends and they threw "eggs and a mix of things" at her to celebrate what they call "the received"for the achievement. She imagines, repeatedly, that such a scene is repeated; a fantasy of reliving it the day that obtain legal residency in Spain. She is 32 years old. She arrived in Palma almost three years ago, fleeing instability and a lack of opportunities in her country. Since landing, nothing has been as she imagined. "You always come with illusions that mask reality. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but not that it would be this difficult. They don't recommend anyone come without papers. It's living 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with constant uncertainty and frustration," she admits.

The institutions of the Islands are boasting about the facilities they have set up as emergency resources to accommodate the migrants who frequently arrive on the shores of Mallorca – such as the old barracks of They are allwhich already houses minors. While the Spanish government and executive branch celebrate the opening of this type of facility, Prosocial, an organization that fights to defend social rights, points out that the people arriving by boat to the Balearic Islands "are fleeing wars, persecution, and hunger," and therefore "must be offered the maximum protection." For this reason, the organization notes that during the presentation of the proposal to restrict access to Son Tous for young migrants, Vox argued that the facility would offer few amenities and would have a deterrent effect on others intending to migrate. The far-right's intentions raised alarm bells at Prosocial, which is demanding that the Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS) close the center because, in its view, "Son Tous cannot be a place of isolation and marginalization; nor can the reception of minors be a form of punishment."

As the population of the Balearic Islands has grown, so too has the lack of social cohesion. Adding to this the spread of far-right rhetoric and the increasing influx of vulnerable people arriving by sea, it becomes clear that the Islands will face, yet again, the major challenge of social cohesion in 2026. With over 1.2 million inhabitants, half of whom were born elsewhere, the islands' multicultural identity needs to be rethought. All this is happening while living conditions are becoming increasingly difficult for the majority of the population, who can no longer even dream of owning a home. Many people are forced to leave, making the Islands a place of transit. The situation is complex, defies easy solutions, and demands a concerted effort from everyone, especially politicians and institutions.

The Civil Guard and Maritime Rescue have rescued a total of 115 migrants traveling aboard four boats located between Friday night and Saturday morning in the waters off Formentera, Cabrera, and southern Mallorca. The first intervention took place on Friday at 11:38 p.m., when a boat carrying 26 people of sub-Saharan origin was intercepted off the northwest coast of Cabrera, in southern Mallorca, according to the Government Delegation. This was the first boat located in Mallorca this year and the second in the Balearic Islands, after another boat with 16 occupants was intercepted hours earlier in Formentera. Later that morning, around 2:40 a.m., rescue teams located a boat with 13 people of North African origin half a mile from the La Mola lighthouse, in southern Formentera. Later, at 7:50 a.m., 20 people of North African origin were rescued from another boat south of Formentera. Simultaneously, a fourth operation was carried out southwest of Cape Blanc, in Mallorca, where a group of 29 people of sub-Saharan origin were assisted. The last boat of the day was located at 10:50 a.m., when a group of 27 people of sub-Saharan origin were rescued from a vessel located southeast of Cabrera. According to a count compiled by the EFE news agency from data provided by the Ministry of the Interior and the Government Delegation, six boats carrying a total of 131 people have been located in the Balearic Islands so far this year.

The NGO Caminando Fronteras released its annual tally of deaths while attempting to reach Spanish shores, noting a significant increase in shipwrecks of boats trying to reach the Balearic Islands from Algeria. Of the 3,090 deaths recorded, a third (1,037) occurred on this route, which departs from North Africa and heads towards Formentera and Ibiza. The contrast between migrants arriving on beaches packed with tourists, representing their dream destination, is one of the images that best encapsulates the contradictions of the modern world. The majority of fatalities (1,906) continue to occur on the route from Africa to the Canary Islands, although this year there has been a significant decrease compared to last year. It should be noted that 2014 was a record year, when more than 10,000 people drowned trying to reach Spanish shores. According to the latest figures from the Ministry of the Interior, irregular migrant arrivals to Spain decreased by 40.4% compared to 2014, despite a 24.5% increase in arrivals to the Balearic Islands. We cannot turn a blind eye to such a painful reality, even though Europe has often believed that the best way to avoid encouraging these journeys is to abandon these people to their fate. We recall that high-seas rescue initiatives like the one carried out by the Catalan NGO Open Arms are condemned by the far right, from Salvini to Vox. Throughout its history, the ARA has documented some of these rescue operations with journalist Cristina Mas and photographer Xavier Bertral, and the conclusion is always the same: it is naive to think that people will not risk their lives to reach Europe by putting themselves in the hands of smuggling rings when they see no future, no opportunities, in their homeland.

A total of 26 migrants were rescued Saturday night in waters near the island of Cabrera after maritime surveillance systems detected a vessel sailing close to the coast. The operation was launched around 8:00 p.m. and involved the Provincial Maritime Service of the Civil Guard and Maritime Rescue. The boat was intercepted about 0.30 miles southwest of Cabrera, and all those on board were taken to port, apparently in good health. This latest rescue coincides with a particularly tragic day in the Balearic Sea. On the same Saturday, two bodies were recovered in waters near Cabrera, bringing the number of people found dead or missing this year along the islands' coastline to 59. The arrival of migrants by irregular sea continues unabated in the archipelago. According to a count compiled from official data from the Ministry of the Interior and the Government Delegation, nearly 400 boats carrying at least 7,406 people arrived in the Balearic Islands this year. These figures surpass those recorded last year, when 5,882 people reached the Islands via the same route throughout 2024, according to the National Security Annual Report.

The president of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad, Driss El Yazami (Fez, 1952), knows well the price of being a human rights activist after experiencing imprisonment and exile in France during the reign of Hassan II. Currently, the institutional weight of his position has not distanced him from the realities of his country, as demonstrated by his advocacy for changes that would make it more democratic. Yazami visited Mallorca to present a study on school enrollment and dropout rates among Moroccan students.

A cruise ship rescued 19 people on Sunday from a small boat 20 miles off Cabrera and transported them to the port of Barcelona.

The Caminando Fronteras collective has accused the National Police of preventing two women from reporting the disappearance of a relative while trying to reach Mallorca by boat. This was stated by the head of the NGO and human rights defender, Helena Maleno, in a message posted on her X account.

Maritime Rescue crew member Manuel Capa strolls through the port of Ibiza during a break from his shift. The sailor contemplates a spectacle of Ferraris and other luxury cars parading by to the applause of the crowd. Like the rest, he takes out his cell phone to record one, driven by a driver wearing a futuristic helmet. Minutes later, he's called to carry out a rescue: a boat with about fifteen men, frightened and without enough life jackets. The rescuers urge them to remain calm and not crowd together, otherwise the boat could capsize. "Great wealth is secure, and poverty risks life at the same time and in the same place," reflects Capa, who is a CGT union delegate. Emotionally integrating these two realities is difficult for him.

The Speaker of Congress and Secretary General of the PSIB-PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Francina Armengol, denounced this Saturday that the PP is using migrant minors as a "shield" to "cover up their incompetence" through a "sectarian policy of confrontation."

The entities and professional associations that work with migrants in the Balearic Islands read a statement this Friday in which they express their concern about the institutional response to the irregular arrival of migrants by sea and the redistribution of unaccompanied foreign minors in Spain.