Three new small boats carrying 58 people have been intercepted between Friday afternoon and Saturday off the coast of the Balearics: one in Ibiza, another in Formentera and a third in Cabrera, according to the Government Delegation. In total, 91 people were located on Friday in Balearic waters following the arrival of six boats carrying irregular migrants, to which a further 31 were added on Saturday in Cabrera. At 6.50 am on Saturday, officers from the Guard Civil’s Provincial Maritime Service and the Command’s Public
Safety Unit (USECIC) intercepted 31 migrants of sub-Saharan origin off the coast near the Faro de n’Ensiola lighthouse in Cabrera. Meanwhile, the latest arrival on Friday took place at 9.20 pm, when officers from the Guardia Civil and the Santa Eulària Local Police intercepted a further ten people of Maghreb origin who had reached the coast in the Cala Olivera area of Ibiza. Shortly before that, at 7.17 pm, Maritime Rescue and the Guardia Civil rescued 17 people of Maghreb origin who were sailing 16
miles south of Formentera. These operations follow those carried out on Friday morning, as at 8.30 am, the Guardia Civil located 15 Maghreb migrants in the Es Pilar de la Mola area of Formentera, after they had disembarked from a small boat. An hour later, Maritime Rescue and the Guardia Civil rescued 22 people of sub-Saharan origin who were half a mile south of Formentera. Furthermore, at around 1.30 pm, another boat carrying 20 Maghreb migrants was intercepted whilst sailing three miles south of Formentera.
Added to these arrivals is a small boat located on Friday morning off the coast of Cala d’Or, in the Mallorcan municipality of Santanyí, with seven occupants of Maghreb origin. So far this year, 1,884 migrants have arrived in the Balearics aboard 97 small boats, according to data compiled by EFE based on information provided by the Government Delegation and the Ministry of the Interior. In 2025, 7,321 people arrived in the Balearics on 401 boats from Algeria, representing a 24.5% increase in the number
of migrants and a rise of around 15% in the number of small boats compared to 2024, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Balearics, migrants, small boats, Guardia Civil, USECIC, Formentera, Ibiza, Cabrera, Maritime Rescue, irregular migrants