Dozens of migrants land on Algarve beach loved by Brits... and are immediately taken before judge and ordered to leave the country, in stark contrast to soft-touch UK
The 38 asylum seekers arrived in Portugal after a perilous voyage of up to 250 miles in a tiny 15ft boat - and face being deported from Portugal within weeks.
They were rounded up by Portuguese police on Friday near Burgau on part of the Algarve coast which is a popular retreat for tourists, and only four miles from Praia da Luz where Madeleine McCann disappeared.
One of the Moroccan nationals claimed that four people on the flimsy wooden boat had died during their five days at sea in the Atlantic Ocean.
But in an example of Portugal's no-nonsense policy on illegal immigration, the 25 men, six women and seven children face being quickly returned to Morocco.
Tourists and locals alike watched in amazement as the dehydrated and hungry migrants stumbled ashore on idyllic Boca do Rio beach.
Three of the children, aged 12 months, eight and ten, were taken to a paediatric emergency clinic in Faro, and a man was taken to a hospital in Portimão, but all were soon discharged.
The group whose arrival was the largest on the Algarve coast in recent years were temporarily given makeshift camp beds at a sports hall in Vila do Bispo near Sagres and kept under guard.
They were given food kits containing biscuits, juice, milk, bread, pâté, fruit and water, along with toothpaste, toothbrushes, sanitary pads and bath products.
But 31 of them were taken to a court in Silves on Saturday afternoon where a duty judge gave them 20 days to voluntarily return to their country of origin.
The judge ordered that if they failed to board flights back to Morocco, they faced being forcefully returned within 60 days.
A separate court hearing in Lagos is due to decide the fate of the remaining seven migrants – a mother and father, along with their three children, a 14-year-old boy and a man with kidney problems.
All the migrants have since been moved to secure detention centres in Lisbon, Faro and Porto.
The speed with which they have been dealt with contrasts starkly with the treatment of migrants arriving in small boats in the UK who are often housed for months in four star hotels at the expense of British taxpayers and left free to come and go.
None of the group in the Algarve have tried to claim asylum and any application on the grounds of race, religion, nationality or political opinions is unlikely to succeed due to Portugal regarding Morocco as a safe country.
António Leitão Amaro, the Minister of the Presidency in Portugal's centre-right minority Government, said: 'At the moment there is no request for asylum and it is not worth speculating on the subject.'
He praised Portuguese officials for the speedy way they had dealt with the migrants, while treating them with 'dignity' and providing 'medical assistance', and taking them to court which had 'decided quickly and concluded the order of their removal from the national territory'.
Officials suggested that the group had headed for Portugal for 'economic' reasons as they were unhappy with work opportunities in Morocco.
Rute Silva, the mayor of Vila do Bispo, told the Observador newspaper: 'We have a law, and it has to be complied with, because they entered our country illegally. But these people want a better life, they will not risk their own lives and those of their families for anything.'
The Daily Mail revealed last weekend how another group of nine Moroccan men who jumped off a speedboat which landed them on a beach at Castell de Ferro near Malaga, Spain, were being treated in a similar way.
The arrival of the group in Spain made headlines after a video clip showed several of the men being rugby-tackled and detained by tourists on the beach, including off duty police officers.
They are all now being held in a secure purpose-built unit behind ten foot fences in the harbour of the nearby town of Motril before being deported, according to local officials.
While a huge number of migrants try and get into Spain by setting off from west Africa to the Canary Islands, a far smaller number head north towards Portugal.
Around 140 migrants in seven boats are reported to have landed on the Algarve coast in southern Portugal over the last six years with the majority setting off around 250 miles away from the city of El Jadida, south of Casablanca.
Police have not yet been able to establish where the latest boat originated from and the report of four people dying during the voyage remains unconfirmed.
But it has been stated that the oldest person on board the boat which arrived on Friday was 44-years-old.
Paulo Lourenço who runs a local dolphin watching tourism business said he spotted the migrants' boat heading for the coast, and followed on his motorbike to film it landing beside the cliffs on Boca do Rio beach.
He told Observador how some of the migrants seemed relieved and happily yelled 'Portugal' when they realised where they were.
Mr Lourenço said: 'I spoke to a family that had a one-year-old child. They said they came from Morocco. They asked me for water and tobacco, and also food. There was a couple on the beach who gave them food.
'They expressed joy at that moment, some were very grateful, with their arms in the air, for having arrived.'
Mr Lourneço said the migrants had mobile phones, groceries, backpacks with some food and 'little else' with them, and one of women had told him that four people had died during the trip.
He added: 'They arrived at the beach parking lot, sat down and waited for help'.
Major Ilídio Barreiros, from the Coastal and Border Control Unit of Portugal's National Republican Guard, said the group had also brought money and had left some groceries, clothes and shoes on their boat.
He added that there state of health was 'representative of the hardship of the journey', saying: 'They were exposed to adverse weather conditions for a considerable period.'
Major Barreiros appeared to dismiss the possibility that the group had paid a people smuggling network to carry them from Morocco, due to their boat being so small.
He said: 'This phenomenon exists but not in an organisation as informal as this and not in a five-metre vessel.'
Mahor Barreiros said the 31 migrants in court on Saturday showed little reaction when they learned through an interpreter that they were being sent home.
He explained: 'When the translator spoke, we expected more emotional reactions. That was not the case. They accepted.'
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