The Balearic Government says it will not directly link the arrival of migrant boats to rising crime figures across the islands, while acknowledging growing public concern over the two issues.

Government spokesperson and Vice-President Antoni Costa made the comments on Friday, September 18, following a meeting of the Consell de Govern, as the latest Interior Ministry crime figures showed an increase in recorded offences across the Balearics during the first half of 2026.

Costa says no direct link will be made

Costa said he would not establish a direct connection between the arrival of migrant boats and the increase in criminality recorded by the Interior Ministry.

At the same time, he acknowledged that many residents make such a connection themselves and said that this public concern was a matter of concern for the regional government.

The distinction is important because the available crime statistics record offences but do not, by themselves, establish that migrant arrivals caused any increase.

Crime rises across the Balearic Islands

The Interior Ministry's second-quarter 2026 criminality report covers the period from January through June.

During those six months, 40,494 criminal offences were recorded across the Balearic Islands, representing a 7.9% increase compared with the same period in 2025.

Conventional criminality increased by 11%, reaching 34,059 offences, while cybercrime fell by 5.8% to 6,435 offences. The figures are provisional and remain subject to consolidation.

Some of the increases were recorded in sexual offences, robberies, thefts and vehicle thefts.

Ibiza and Formentera show different trends

The island-level figures provide a more mixed picture.

Ibiza recorded 5,615 offences between January and June, an increase of 0.4% compared with the same period last year.

Formentera recorded 331 offences, representing a 7.5% increase.

The figures therefore show a much smaller rise in recorded offences on Ibiza than across the Balearic Islands as a whole, while Formentera recorded a larger percentage increase from a much smaller total.

The Interior Ministry report covers registered offences and does not attribute those changes to any particular cause.

Mallorca accounts for most of the increase

The largest increase in absolute terms was recorded on Mallorca.

The island registered 32,812 offences during the first half of 2026, up 10.4% year-on-year.

Palma alone recorded 18,482 offences, an increase of 9.6%.

Menorca moved in the opposite direction, with 1,736 recorded offences, down 8.4% compared with the first half of 2025.

Irregular arrivals remain a separate statistic

The latest Interior Ministry irregular-migration bulletin available on September 18 recorded 5,592 people arriving in the Balearics by sea between January and August 2026.

That compared with 12,453 during the same period in 2025. The number of boats recorded also fell, from 204 in the first eight months of 2025 to 76 in 2026.

These figures cover a different period from the criminality report, which runs only through June, and they should therefore not be directly presented as evidence for or against a relationship between the two trends.

They also do not include arrivals occurring after August 31.

Government renews call for Frontex

Alongside his comments on crime, Costa again called for Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, to be deployed in the Balearic Islands.

He argued that the regional government needs greater support to manage the situation and again blamed the central government for the absence of a Frontex deployment.

The Govern has repeatedly requested a larger role for the European border agency in response to irregular migration in the islands.

More police officers also requested

Costa also called for the Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil to have their staffing levels reinforced.

He argued that filling vacant positions and increasing the number of officers would strengthen the capacity of the security forces to respond to the increase in recorded criminality.

Those comments represent the Balearic Government's position. The Interior Ministry's criminality figures themselves record changes in reported offences but do not establish that staffing levels, migrant arrivals or any other single factor caused the overall increase.

A sensitive debate in the islands

The comments come at a time of heightened debate around irregular migration in the Balearics following a series of boat arrivals during the summer.

Recent incidents have also affected Ibiza and Formentera, with authorities intercepting or assisting people arriving by sea and investigating suspected migrant-smuggling operations in some cases.

Those individual incidents should be distinguished from wider criminality statistics. An arrival by migrant boat is not itself evidence that the people on board have committed another criminal offence.

What the latest figures show

The available official data presents several separate trends:

Balearic Islands: 40,494 recorded offences, +7.9%, January to June 2026

Ibiza: 5,615 offences, +0.4%

Formentera: 331 offences, +7.5%

Mallorca: 32,812 offences, +10.4%

Menorca: 1,736 offences, -8.4%

Irregular migrants arriving in the Balearics by sea: 5,592, January to August 2026

The statistics come from different reporting periods and measure different phenomena, so they should not be combined to infer causation.

Government maintains its position

Costa's comments leave the Balearic Government with two positions that need to be considered separately.

The Govern says it will not directly associate migrant-boat arrivals with the increase in criminality. At the same time, it says public concern about the possible relationship is real and is calling for additional resources, including Frontex and more national police and Guardia Civil personnel.

The latest official statistics confirm that recorded crime has increased across the Balearics, but they do not establish that irregular migration is the cause.