People smugglers are using high-speed jet skis to ferry migrants across the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain.
At least 15 Moroccan smugglers have been arrested this month as they tried to deliver their human cargo. Each smuggler carries one or two migrants on the back of a jet ski when they make the eight-mile daylight crossings between Morocco and Tarifa, southern Spain, across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The journey takes 20 to 30 minutes. When they arrive, the migrants are dumped in shallow waters and the smugglers return to Morocco. If the smugglers spot police launches approaching them at sea, they sometimes push the migrants into the water and race back to Morocco at high speed.
The apprehended smugglers have been charged with human trafficking offences. Police have also detained as many as 40 Moroccan migrants who made the crossing by jet ski. They have been sent to the Red Cross for treatment and then to internment camps before a judge decides whether they can stay in Spain or must return.
A Spanish police spokesman said: “This is a more luxurious way to cross to Spain than in a dinghy or in the back of a lorry but it is far more dangerous. Often migrants don’t know how to swim.”