Spain: Migration Crisis Spirals Out of Control
Prosecutors in Spain have charged a dozen North African migrants with sedition for illegally entering the country by forcing a commercial airliner to land on Spanish territory.
Spain: Migration Crisis Spirals Out of Control
Soeren Kern | Gatestone Institute | November 17, 2021
Prosecutors in Spain have charged a dozen North African migrants with sedition for illegally entering the country by forcing a commercial airliner to land on Spanish territory.
The plot, months in the making and unmatched in audacity, has demonstrated that commandeering airliners is a cheaper and safer way to reach Europe than paying people smugglers thousands of euros for perilous sea crossings.
Spanish authorities, notorious for closing a blind eye to illegal immigration from North Africa, fear that the plot has set a precedent that will be repeated, not only in Spain but at other airports in Europe.
On the evening of November 5, a Moroccan migrant on an Air Arabia Maroc flight between Morocco and Turkey pretended to be suffering from a diabetic coma. The supposed medical emergency forced the pilot to land the plane in Palma, a city on the Spanish island of Mallorca, located in the western Mediterranean Sea.
Upon landing, an airplane door was opened to allow a medical team to transfer the allegedly sick traveler to a local hospital. At that moment, more than two dozen migrants rushed to the door, exited the aircraft, fled across the runways, and jumped the airport’s perimeter fence.
