Five Brits have been accused by Spanish police of hate crimes over vigilante street protests in Magauf against African prostitutes blamed for tourist muggings.
The expats were fingerprinted and told they face a court summons after being ordered to attend a local police station.
The summons occurred after around 20 Nigerian prostitutes complained to police they had been insulted and assaulted by protestors who filmed them without their consent.
Britons arriving at a Guardia Civil station in Magaluf. The unnamed five were supported by family and friends after being detained
The unnamed Brits, who were supported by expat friends when they went to the Civil Guard station near Magaluf, say they are the ones being treated as criminals rather than the women,
They are believed to have been members of a Facebook group which has recently been shut down.
The group are expected to be ordered to court over the next few weeks so they can be questioned by an investigating judge who will decide whether to formally charge them with hate crimes and disturbing the peace.
The shock development in the ongoing battle to rid Magaluf of the prostitutes – which has led to ugly street spats and calls by the local mayor for the Spanish government to draft more police into the party resort – has caused consternation among British workers and businessmen.
Angry vigilantes took to the streets of Magaluf in an attempt to drive out prostitutes who taxi drivers say have been frightening away British tourists
One confirmed: ‘The outcome with the police wasn’t good. Our friends are being charged with hate crimes and are awaiting court. We have to rethink this again and change our tactics.’
A local travel worker added: ‘Makes me laugh how these women can denounce and get listened to after all they have done and got away with.
‘I suppose they think they have won now and they’re laughing at everyone.’
One of those who now faces a court summons is a Magaluf bar manager from Darlington, Co Durham.
He confirmed he was among the Brits ‘charged’ with hate crimes and disturbing the peace, although the police accusation is not a formal judicial charge.
Formal charges if they occur are likely to be months away because of the slowness of the Spanish judicial system.
It is claimed that the women have come to Spain via organised crime in Nigeria, and they are blamed by local businesses for a drop in tourist trade.
The most recent figures for Mallorca as a whole showed a year-on-year fall of almost six per cent in the number of visitors to the island.
A rock thrown by one of the Nigerian women at the protesters who took part in vigilante action, which turned ugly this week
It was not immediately clear if street protests against the prostitutes would continue.
The British group coordinating actions against the women had made public its intention to make a daily stand against the ‘prostitutes’ who have robbed, stabbed, bullied and attacked not only holidaymakers but the residents and seasonal workers of Magaluf.’
It said on its social media literature, insisting on the need for peaceful protest: ‘We will hold public demonstrations every night and prevent them from making a living preying on the people of Magaluf and together we will take back our streets, and make them understand that they are no longer welcome here and they are not wanted!
‘If the police will not do anything about it then we will! There are less than 100 of them but we can number in the thousands! We will put an end to this together.’
Spaniards have also taken part in street protests. One earlier this week ended up turning ugly as African women were chased off the streets while being videoed on mobile phones to shouts of ‘The tourists are not coming because of you.’
The British group coordinating the protests said it intends to make a daily stand against the prostitutes and preventing them from making a living
Spanish taxi drivers joined a late-night show of strength against the women by recording them with their mobile phones and chanting: ‘No prostitutes on the streets’
Another of the protestors yelled: ‘What happens if you go back to your own countries and rob people. They slit your throats, right?’
One of the women picked up a block of wood as she was pursued by a large group of men yelling: ‘Get out, get out.’
A man who picked the prostitutes up in a car they had been taken to Magaluf’s raucous Punta Ballena area in, was also confronted.
There were reports of pushing and shoving and some minor assaults, but no-one was seriously injured.
The new protest came after Alfonso Rodriguez Badal, the mayor of Calvia which includes Magaluf, urged the Spanish government to help the party resort tackle the problems posed by African street prostitutes in a letter made public on Wednesday.
He called for an urgent meeting with a central government spokesman for the Balearic Islands as he insisted more Civil Guard officers were needed to combat the criminal gangs controlling the women.
The women, Nigerians working for mafia organisations who help them reach Europe, have been blamed for targeting drunk Brits and stealing their valuables. Spanish authorities say they are victims themselves of criminal human trafficking gangs.
The Nigerian women have been brought to Spain by people smugglers in their own country
The women, Nigerians working for mafia organisations who help them reach Europe, have been blamed for targeting drunk Brits and stealing their valuables
On Thursday police revealed 12 people had been arrested on suspicion of bringing Nigerian women to Spain to work as prostitutes after they were subjected to voodoo rituals to make sure they obeyed.
Officers from Spain’s National Police said the operation came as four women were about to be flown from the east coast city of Valencia to Majorca and Ibiza to coincide with the start of the start of the holiday season.
The problem of the Magaluf prostitutes has sparked a political row between the area’s two main parties.
The opposition Popular Party in Calvia, the municipality Magaluf is part of, accused the area’s socialist mayor of passing the buck to others and his PSOE party of ‘showing little willing to take brave measures to deal with Magaluf’s problems.’
A PP spokesman said in a statement: ‘It’s obvious that the number of assaults on tourists is higher every day.
One of the prostitutes being pursued by some of the protesters in Magaluf town centre
‘This is a very negative factor for Magaluf’s main source of income which is tourism.’
One of the Brits now facing possible prosecution, voicing the frustration he and many others felt, said as he left the Civil Guard station: ‘The question that should be asked is why has Calvia let this go on for so long.
‘Why have they not got rid of this problem?.’
Another added of his police summons: ‘The Civil Guard didn’t ask any questions. They just said I had been summonsed to the station because I had committed a hate crime.
‘They said 18 women had gone down to the station and accused of us of hate crimes and that’s not true.
‘They photographed us and took our fingerprints as part of what they called protocol.
‘We haven’t done anything wrong. All we’re trying to do is make our home a better and safer place for us and everyone else against robberies and assaults.
‘We don’t want these women thieving from the tourists and the locals.
‘That’s what they do every night. They know it, the authorities know it, so why haven’t they done anything about it?’