Overview

• Authorities have detained ten individuals in connection with the initial pensioner assault and the subsequent xenophobic mob violence in Torre-Pacheco.
• National Police and Guardia Civil reinforcements have quelled nightly clashes and maintained a robust security presence to ward off further unrest.
• Extremist groups used Telegram and other social media to call for a “Jagd auf Migranten,” mobilizing outsiders to attack the town’s migrant community.
• Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the racist violence as incompatible with democracy while the far-right Vox party and some conservative figures demanded tougher immigration controls and mass deportations.
• Migrants, who make up about 30 percent of Torre-Pacheco’s 40,000 residents and largely sustain the local agricultural economy, face heightened fear and calls for anti-hate measures.