Last weekend's latest wave of dinghy, in which 148 migrants were spotted aboard nine boats between Friday and Sunday in the vicinity of Formentera or already on land, has prompted a new cry for help from the president of the Consell de Formentera. Among these 148 migrants were two minors, who have been taken into the care of the island's authorities. These two minors bring to 65 the number of migrants who have reached Formentera's shores so far this year, more than double the number who arrived in the first six months of the year 2024, which were 30.
«The data for the month of June confirm the forecasts we had for 2025. If 2024 was already a very hard and difficult year, with unaffordable figures, this year is even worse», points out Óscar Portas, president of Consell de Formentera, in relation to the arrival of unaccompanied immigrant minors.
The Consell de Formentera explains that the institution currently has 132 minors under its guardianship, after a surge in arrivals since the middle of last year. If in the first six months of 2024 30 unaccompanied minors arrived, with February and March being the months in which there were more arrivals, with eight each; in the last half of the year there were 73 minors who arrived on the shores of Formentera, making a total of 103 in the whole of 2024. July was the month with the most minors arriving, with 20, while in August, November and December there were more than ten. January was the month with the lowest number of minors, with only two.
So far this year, Formentera has received 65 unaccompanied minors. April was the month with the highest number of arrivals, with 17 minors arriving. This figure could exceed that of June, since 16 minors have already arrived in Formentera with a week left of the month.