A boat carrying 62 migrants pulled directly onto a crowded tourist beach in Cartagena, Spain on Wednesday, August 19, wi...

A boat carrying 62 migrants pulled directly onto a crowded tourist beach in Cartagena, Spain on Wednesday, August 19, with sunbathers watching as the passengers jumped into the water and walked ashore. The landing happened around 1:00 p.m. at Cala del Barco, a small beach next to the upscale La Manga Club resort in the Murcia region of southeastern Spain. Emergency services received multiple calls to the 112 number reporting the vessel before the Guardia Civil confirmed the final count. Of the 62 migrants, 45 were adult men, two were adult women, and 15 were unaccompanied minors, all boys. All were reported in good health and received initial care from the Red Cross before being handed over to the Policía Nacional. Deportation proceedings have since been opened. The boat did not stay at the shore. Once everyone had disembarked, it turned around and headed back out to sea. The incident has triggered a political fight over Spain's coastal surveillance system. Popular Party senator Francisco Bernabé, who posted video footage on social media, publicly questioned how a vessel of that size was not detected earlier by maritime radar. Cartagena's mayor, Noelia Arroyo, backed those concerns and called on the central government to reinforce monitoring and deploy more personnel and technology along the coastline. According to Spanish radio network Cadena SER, Bernabé's question was pointed: if a boat this large could not be picked up by surveillance radar, what exactly is the radar there for. Video recorded by beachgoers shows the inflatable motorboat approaching the shore while passengers begin dropping into the water. #Immigration #Spain #BorderSecurity