With very little clear over what a powerful motorlaunch was doing off the coast of Arrifana beach yesterday – or what the large group of men on shore were doing with the dozens of jerry cans being floated out to it – 10 of these ‘undocumented’ men, the majority north Africans are now in police custody. Their ‘story’ is that they live in Spain and came to Portugal looking for work. But it hasn’t explained what they were doing on the quiet little beach at 6am yesterday, nor why they have no identity documents. Initially two men were detained by police, then another half dozen, and overnight the number increased after more were located in Vila do Bispo. The launch however made off at the first sign of the authorities, and remains in parts unknown.
