Migrants sea ordeal toll hits 46
2007-11-08 08:21
Nouakchott - One more illegal African emigrant died on Wednesday in Mauritania taking to 46 the victims of a three-week sea ordeal survived by nearly 100 others, said a Red Cross official.
Mohamed Ould Hamada said that the latest victim had initially shown no signs of weakness and exhaustion, but had died late on Tuesday night probably from drinking too much seawater in the last days before being rescued.
Scores of emigrants exhausted and traumatised after 20 days on the Atlantic Ocean in an open fishing boat drifted onto the shores between Mauritania and Morocco on Monday after the boat's engine packed up a week ago.
They had set sail from the beaches of Senegal's southern Casamance province on October 16 heading to the Spanish islands of the Canaries, but ran aground during the perilous journey.
After a lull of several months, recent days had seen an upsurge of departures despite the stepped-up maritime patrols off Africa's Atlantic coast by the European Union border agency, Frontex, which co-operated with some west African nations.
Stubbornness
The scaled up surveillance of territorial waters had however forced migrants to seek alternative, but now longer and even more hazardous routes.
Senegalese police spokesperson Alioune Ndiaye said: "We are battling against the departures, but there is real stubbornness ... to evade the controls.
"They are forced to take onto open and high seas, where the risks are doubled."
An unknown number of migrants died every year trying to reach the Canaries. In July, 50 perished after their boat capsized near the island of Tenerife.
Located off the coast of Morocco, the Canary Islands had been a magnet in recent years for mainly sub-Saharan immigrants aspiring to reach Europe after a security crackdown in Morocco and two Spanish enclaves there.
More than 31 200 illegal immigrants arrived in the Canaries last year, more than tripling the previous annual record and overwhelming the island chain's authorities.