A political row has erupted after a boat carrying 62 migrants landed on a packed tourist beach in Murcia this week.
The migrants, including 15 children and two women, stunned beachgoers when they arrived at Cala del Barco in Cartagena on Wednesday.
The Guardia Civil was deployed to the scene while the Red Cross provided medical assistance to those who had made the crossing.
Most of the group are reported to be Algerian nationals.
They were transferred to Cartagena’s Temporary Foreigners’ Assistance Centre (CATE), where authorities carry out identification procedures and checks before their individual immigration situations are assessed.
The arrival has intensified concerns over a sharp increase in migrant boats attempting to reach the Region of Murcia.
According to the Unified Association of Guardia Civil Officers (AUGC), around 2,000 people attempted to enter Spain through Murcia’s coastline in the first seven months of this year.
That is reportedly around double the number recorded over the same period last year, with some 600 arrivals in July alone.
‘How can a boat that size reach our coast?’
The vessel involved in Wednesday’s arrival was reportedly a large speedboat equipped with four engines.
According to La Verdad de Murcia, it was capable of rapidly leaving the area after dropping off its passengers.
Murcia’s regional president, Fernando Lopez Miras, questioned how such a vessel could apparently reach the coastline without being intercepted.
‘We don’t understand how a boat of those dimensions can reach our shores without being intercepted, without being located, without any kind of control,’ he told Spanish television programme Espejo Público.
The incident has also triggered a heated debate at Cartagena City Council, where conservative parties and the local MC Cartagena group criticised Spain’s central government over its handling of the situation.
It comes amid intense political scrutiny of migration in Spain following the ongoing crisis in Ceuta, where authorities have been struggling to accommodate large numbers of arrivals.
Are migrant routes changing?
The latest figures have also raised questions over whether people-smuggling networks are increasingly using routes towards Murcia and other parts of Spain’s Mediterranean coastline.
The Region of Murcia sits directly across the Mediterranean from Algeria, making its coastline one of the possible destinations for boats departing North Africa.
There have also been signs of migrants attempting considerably longer and more dangerous Mediterranean crossings.
In May 2025, the bodies of five migrants of unknown nationality were discovered in waters around Formentera, highlighting the deadly risks involved in routes towards the Balearic Islands.
