Photo credit: ABC News
Some call them “Ferraris” and to others, they are “Phantoms.” They are the powerful boats increasingly sighted on the Mediterranean route between Spain and Morocco.
DPA International reports that a spokeswoman for the EU border agency Frontier said, “These vessels are faster and more maneuverable than the larger patrol boats used by national authorities making them more difficult to detect and intercept.”
According to data from the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 120,000 migrants arrived irregularly in Europe by sea this year, while 1,700 died or went missing in the process.
Arrivals have fallen since 2023, not least because the European Union has in effect t erected an invisible wall beyond its borders, paying billions for countries to help prevent people fleeing poverty and conflict from undertaking the perilous journey.
More speedboats are also operating between Libya and I taly which iis the most used Mediterranean route, according to EU border guards. Almost half of all migrants now reach Europe that way.
To overwhelm the police, smugglers often operate in a flotilla and coordinate their trips with GPS mapping and satellite phones. They can cover the run to Spain, for example to the area around Almeria, in two and a half hours.
