A British man claimed his holiday to a Spanish resort turned into a nightmare when a group of migrants arrived on a dinghy at the beach just outside his hotel.
The migrants were running through the hotel’s courtyard to get to the other side of the property when a lethal fight allegedly broke out between the men leaving one dead.
Joseph, a 32-year-old service manager from Twickenham, told the Daily Mail that the terrifying incident occurred on the morning of August 11 at Playavera Hotel on the coast of Almería, southeastern Spain.
He was enjoying his morning coffee on his first-floor balcony when he noticed a small black dinghy dock at the sandy seashore at around 6am.
In a video shared exclusively with the Daily Mail, between 10 to 15 migrants jumped off the boat and swam to the beach, before running in the direction of the hotel.
Prior to dashing away to the village via the hotel’s courtyard, the migrants collected money and a mobile phone from a ‘handler’, Joseph claimed, who was waiting on the shore to meet them when the small boat docked up.
After witnessing the boat arrive, Joseph went downstairs to breakfast, where fellow guests told him that the situation was ‘serious’ and he should ‘look outside’.
When he went downstairs, he said he saw a dead body covered with a bloodied white hotel towel, lying in the courtyard.
Though Joseph didn’t witness the scuffle himself, another resident of the hotel – a former Spanish police officer – said he saw a fight break out among the migrants.
The ex-cop was staying in a ground-floor room, and heard a man scream for help and slam on his window.
He told Joseph that the victim was ‘beaten to death’ by around two or three of the men who had just joined him on the perilous overseas journey, who wanted to steal his money and phone.
The Brit described his horror when he saw a body left just outside the hotel for hours in 35C heat, with no one coming to collect it until 2pm – some seven hours after the incident.
Recalling the moment he saw the dinghy dock up just a few yards from his room, Joseph said: ‘I was like: “What the bloody hell is going on?” It’s the same situation as what we’ve got now: these men could be anyone.
‘We still had two days left of the holiday, and for those two days I barely left the room.
‘I just thought one of them has literally killed one of their own, what could they do to a couple of Brits who were there on holiday? It was terrifying.’
He was gripped by fear that some of the men might have stayed ‘local’ or in the hotel itself, and would later return to attack some of the guests.
‘I’ve never had any issues [visiting the hotel], It’s quite a sleepy little village,’ said Joseph.
‘But we noticed something was quite amiss, to put it mildly, we were like: “This doesn’t look like a normal boat coming in”.’
He continued: ‘They scarpered through the hotel property itself to get out the other side, and unfortunately one of the guys on the boat was beaten to death by two or three of the others, to get his phone and money.’
When Joseph noticed the dinghy, he began messaging his friends, telling them to urgently ‘look out the window’.
When he went downstairs, he said he saw the dead body surrounded by Spanish police officers.
‘His body was literally on the pavement in the hotel, as you leave through one of the hotel gates.
‘The national police were there, smoking a cigarette and waiting for the coroner to come.’
The receptionist apparently told Joseph that intrusions from migrants docking up at the beach on small boats are becoming more and more common.
Despite a number of intrusions in recent months, the hotel has done little to improve their security, Joseph said.
‘I’ve been there eight times, and there’s been quite a few instances where people who weren’t guests have been coming into the hotel.
‘They had one security guard walking around, checking if people were wearing wristbands. But if you just wanted to walk into the hotel and use the facilities, you literally could.
‘There’s a gate at the back where the property meets the beach, and that’s usually left open, so people can literally just walk in and out as they please.’
After the incident, the hotel assured Joseph that guests were ‘safe in their rooms’ – which he found to be insufficient. ‘That’s all well and good, but if they can cross into the hotel, then it means that obviously they can get to our rooms.’
Even though his summer holiday was ‘tainted’, Joseph has already re-booked another holiday back to the same hotel in the hope that Spanish police will get a grip on the issue of small boat crossings.
‘I already had a plan to go back there next year. I’m trying to have faith in the Spanish immigration system and the Spanish police that they’ll be able to clamp down on it.
‘I don’t want them to win. I’ve been there eight times, I don’t want it to ruin my experience going there.’
In an email correspondence with On the Beach – the travel company which booked Joseph’s trip – Playavera Hotel insisted that the incidents occurred outside of the hotel’s premises, on a public beach, and were entirely beyond their control.
When the Daily Mail contacted the hotel for comment, a spokesperson refused to confirm or deny Joseph’s account of events.
In 2024, Spain received 63,970 irregular migrants, the vast majority in the Canaries, up from 56,852 in 2023, according to the interior ministry.
In the first six months of 2025, Spain recorded 4,587 illegal arrivals on its mainland and the Balearic Islands, a 13 per cent increase from 4,044 in the first half of 2024.
Spanish police said they arrested 19 people suspected of murder and torture after more than 50 migrants went missing from a migrant boat that was travelling from Senegal to the Canary Islands.
The first allegations of mass high seas executions on board the overcrowded vessel emerged at the start of the month, after 248 survivors were rescued off the African coast and taken to Gran Canaria.
Detectives began investigating after witnesses claimed to have seen fellow migrants beaten up and shot after people smugglers in charge of the boat accused them of being witches when they suffered engine problems and started running out of food.
