In an appearance before a Senate committee on Tuesday, the Spanish Government's delegate in the Balearics, Alfonso Rodríguez, accused the ruling Partido Popular in the Balearics and Vox of "using migration to win votes and as a blanket to cover up their poor management". "The PP don't want to debate housing, territory, tourism policy, or overcrowding, and when they have a problem, they bring out migration as a blanket that covers everything."
He told the committee that the arrival of migrants on small boats in the Balearics "has intensified significantly in the last two years", noting that sub-Saharan migrants now account for more than half of the total.
Among the reasons, he pointed to "poverty, war, persecution, and the desire for a better life". These have turned the Balearics into a transit area, because "the vast majority continue their migratory journey", either by their own means or because they enter the Red Cross humanitarian circuit.
Rodríguez described the "drama" of immigration, with 45 bodies of migrants having been found so far this year. There are up to 15 confirmed missing persons, "and many others who may have begun their journey and of whom there has been no record". Given this, he argued that the government's priority is "saving lives".
The PP's José Vicente Marí insisted that the government's only policy in the Balearics has been to set up reception facilities in ports. He accused the government of "leaving the island councils destitute" due to the disastrous management of unaccompanied minor arrivals and demanded that it "put on the table" €18 million for state security forces.
Marí blamed the government's incompetence for immigration having gone from being the public's number 12 twelve concern in 2018 to number two - "a very serious problem". Jorge Campos of Vox stated that "more immigration means more insecurity".