Spanish authorities and the EU’s border agency Frontex are searching for a migrant boat that went missing while attempting to reach the Balearic Islands from Algeria, the government said on Friday.
The alert follows a warning from migrant rights group Walking Borders that three boats carrying 81 people, including 10 women and two babies, had disappeared along the Western Mediterranean route, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Spain’s representative in the Comunitat Autónoma de las Illes Balears said the Algerian Navy intercepted two of the three boats. However, a third vessel remains unaccounted for.
Two aircraft operated by Frontex and Spain’s Guardia Civil are continuing search efforts over the Mediterranean. Authorities have not disclosed how many people were aboard the missing boat or the condition of those rescued.
Algeria’s embassy in Spain did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Algeria–Balearic Islands corridor became one of the fastest-growing migration routes into the European Union last year, even as overall arrivals to the bloc declined.
According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 483 migrants died or disappeared in the Western Mediterranean in 2025 while trying to reach Europe.
Frontex previously reported that smuggling networks had increasingly shifted operations from Morocco to Algeria, citing what were seen as less stringent controls and the use of faster boats.
Despite last year’s spike, irregular sea arrivals to the Balearic Islands fell 25% between January and mid-February compared with the same period a year earlier, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry.
Madrid has sought closer cooperation with Algeria to combat smuggling networks. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska recently said Spain may request increased Frontex air surveillance along the Algeria–Balearics route.
However, he ruled out deploying Spanish police officers or transferring equipment to Algeria, emphasizing instead deeper intelligence-sharing and security coordination.