The National Police of Ibiza has arrested the skipper of a boat for the alleged discovery of a 17-year-old minor who was traveling on the boat, which arrived on the island of Formentera last Saturday. The other 15 men who arrived in the same boat, in which the victim was the only woman, have also been arrested, accused of an alleged crime of omission of the duty to help, for not having acted to stop the sexual assault. The 16 men were brought to justice on Wednesday morning in the investigative courts of the city of Ibiza.
The events occurred on a boat that made landfall on the island of Formentera last Saturday at 10:45 p.m. in the Can Marroig area, where they were intercepted by the Civil Guard and the National Police. There were 16 men and one woman on board, the 17-year-old victim of the sexual assault. Upon disembarking on the island, the 17 people were treated by the initial reception services and were later transferred to a center temporarily enabled to care for migrants arriving by boat. The young woman, being a minor, was also treated by social services technicians, to whom she informed that she had been raped by the boat’s skipper during the two-day trip on the boat from a city in Algeria.
The minor filed a complaint at the Formentera Civil Guard barracks in which she explained that she had been sexually assaulted during the voyage by the man who was directing the boat. She stated that while she was being raped, the rest of the occupants did nothing to prevent it and that some passengers even humiliated her by throwing water in her face while she was being attacked. The minor was taken to the hospital to be treated for the injuries suffered and undergo an examination.
The skipper of the boat, who had already been transferred to Ibiza to be placed at the disposal of the National Police, was arrested at the same police station for alleged crimes of rape and favoring irregular immigration. A few hours later, the National Police decided to arrest the remaining 15 crew members for an alleged crime of omission of the duty to help, for not having helped the young woman while she was suffering the attack.
The president of the Formentera Council, Llorenç Córdoba, has condemned the events, stating that “if it is hard in itself to have to risk your life to leave a country in search of a better life, it is even more difficult than those who have paid you to undertake “This dangerous journey they believe they have the right to abuse your body.” Furthermore, he has labeled as “cowards” those who, seeing what was happening, did nothing to stop the rape. “The blame lies with both the person who commits the crime and the person who, seeing what is happening, does nothing to prevent it,” he stated. The detainee is pending his possible transfer to prison.
