The ports of Palma and the Pitiusas welcome migrants after more than 260 arrived in two days.

PalmMore than 260 migrants arrived on the coast of the Balearic Islands between Monday and Tuesday, a situation that prompted the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) to open Maritime Station No. 3 at the Port of Palma early in the morning to temporarily house vulnerable migrants before they are transferred to the mainland. The entity also granted the Spanish government delegation use of the tent next to the Botafoc maritime station in the port of Ibiza, and a space in the Casa del Mar building in the port of La Savina, Formentera. The objective is to "guarantee adequate care in humanitarian emergency situations," the APB stated, emphasizing that the opening of these spaces has not altered the operations of the three ports.

In less than 24 hours, 16 boats carrying 269 people arrived in the Balearic Islands. Six boats arrived in Cabrera, with 123 people on board; four in Formentera (86 people); three in Mallorca (39); and two in Ibiza (21), according to EFE, which reports that 172 migrants arrived on Tuesday (in nine boats) and 97 on Monday.

The Balearic Islands have received at least 3,860 people on 203 boats throughout 2025, a figure that was not reached until November last year and which is on track to exceed the 5,882 migrants who arrived in 2024 aboard 330 boats – compared to the same period last year, it is a .

Minors remain at the center of the controversy

Migrants continue to disembark on the islands, while the controversy between the government and the Spanish executive over the distribution of migrant minors from the Canary Islands continues, 49 of whom are supposed to be received by the Balearic Islands. The president of the Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS), Guillermo Sánchez, stated this Tuesday that the Government and the Council of Mallorca still do not know whether the islands will have to host migrant minors and criticized the Spanish government for not reporting "either on the distribution of minors from the Canary Islands to the Balearic Islands or on what has happened." Furthermore,has reiterated the refusal of the Consell de Mallorcato take in these children under the argument that there is no capacity to care for them in a dignified manner.

For his part, the Spanish government delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, warned a few days ago that the islands could be found in the situation of having to ask for help to transfer migrant minors to other autonomous communities "within a few months or a year," although they currently refuse to accept 49 from the Canary Islands. "We must confront a reality based on the best interests of the minor, which is their protection, and the idea that this is a national phenomenon that must be resolved as a whole, and all communities must collaborate," he added.