Migrants without visas create an unprecedented way to enter Spain
The Spanish authorities announced that Palma de Mallorca airport in the Balearic archipelago, one of the country's busiest airports, was closed for nearly four hours on Friday, after a number of passengers took advantage of an emergency landing in it to disembark a passenger who likely claimed illness, so they landed on the runway and fled.
The Spanish Civil Guard told AFP that the plane, which was on a flight between Morocco and Turkey, was allowed to make an emergency landing in Palma de Mallorca after receiving a report that one of its passengers was feeling ill.
He added that while the supposed patient was being evacuated from the plane, about 20 passengers took the opportunity to escape from it, landed on the runway and fled before the authorities arrested two of them.
According to El Pais newspaper, investigators believe that the escaped passengers orchestrated the emergency landing of the plane with the intention of entering Spain illegally.
She added that the passenger, who claimed to feel ill, was taken to the hospital, where he was found to be in good health, so the police arrested him on charges of "aiding illegal immigration and violating the foreigners law."
According to the newspaper, another person accompanied the passenger, who claimed illness, to the hospital, and he fled.
And "El Pais" pointed out that the authorities arrested five of the passengers who escaped, in addition to the one who claimed illness.
According to Flightradar24, a website that monitors air traffic, the plane that made an emergency landing in Palma de Mallorca was an Airbus A320 belonging to Air Arabia (Morocco), and it was on a flight between Casablanca and Istanbul.
As a result of the accident, 13 planes bound for Palma were diverted to other airports, and 16 departures suffered significant delays, according to airport authorities.
The airport reopened around midnight on Friday, about four hours after it was closed.
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