- “Guys, listen, most of you want to emigrate. Follow this plan: we need 40 volunteers. All the Brooklyn guys who book a flight to Turkey will fly over Spain. One of you will activate the GPS and when the plane approaches Spain you will begin to scream and feign an illness. The stewardess will come and ask for patience until the plane arrives in Turkey. At this moment the others begin to protest and claim that the passenger is going to die… If everyone shows sympathy for the sick passenger, the plane will make an emergency landing in Spain to protect the reputation of the company and to free itself of responsibility.” — Description of a plot to enter Spain illegally, published in a Moroccan Facebook group, as reported by El Mundo and EFE news agency, November 7, 2021.
- The plot, months in the making and unmatched in audacity, has demonstrated that commandeering airliners is a cheaper and safer way to reach Europe than paying people smugglers thousands of euros for perilous sea crossings.
- “Obviously, what can be done with this data is to ignore it and let the problem fester, which is what has been done so far. The last straw is that in Spain they insult you by calling you ‘xenophobic’ and ‘racist’ for the mere fact of pointing out a problem revealed by the official statistics. What they are trying to censor is not a political position, but reality.” — Spanish commentator and blogger Elentir, November 6, 2021.
- As in other parts of Europe, migrant crime in Spain is spiraling beyond the capacity of law enforcement to contain the violence. Migrant crimes are rarely reported by national news outlets, but local newspapers show that migrant criminality is a nationwide problem. Many migrants have criminal records but are repeatedly released back onto the streets by lenient judges. Migrant criminals are rarely deported; many are unable or unwilling to integrate into Spanish society, so the cycle of crime continues apace.
- “We say that the requirements to obtain nationality must be toughened because Spanish nationality is a treasure that we are not willing to give away to those who do not respect it and do not deserve it.” — Vox President Santiago Abascal, November 6, 2021.
