100 immigrants land in Spain
2005-10-13 23:05
Almeria - Two boats carrying a total of nearly 100 African immigrants landed on the southern Spanish coast near Almeria overnight, officials said on Thursday.
Occupants of one boat jumped overboard near the shore. One drowned and several others were rescued by police, who detained dozens and launched a search for those who managed to escape.
Meanwhile, helicopters of the United Nations mission to western Sahara (Minurso) were reportedly searching for more than 250 immigrants Morocco is believed to have left in a mined area near the defensive wall it built during its 1975 to 1991 war against the Saharawi independence movement Polisario.
The helicopters managed to locate one group of migrants, according to the Spanish daily El Pais.
The European Commission said on Wednesday that 30 000 West and Central Africans were waiting in Morocco and Algeria to cross over to the Spanish outposts of Ceuta and Melilla on Morocco's Mediterranean coast.
Moroccan interior minister Moustapha Sahel estimated that at least 15 000 would-be immigrants were in Morocco.
Morocco under pressure
Under pressure from Spain to stem the tide of illegals, Morocco has arrested thousands and has begun repatriating Senegalese and Malians in agreement with their countries.
Morocco was also seeking agreements with other countries, but immigrants who could not be repatriated would be taken to the border over which they came, El Pais quoted Sahel as saying.
The daily said hundreds of immigrants were being kept in military installations in southern Morocco and Moroccan-governed western Sahara. The migrants reportedly included several injured people.
Criticism meanwhile increased towards the Spanish government for earlier sending 73 immigrants back to Morocco.
Legal experts said the migrants were expelled despite orders to place them in reception centres. A representative of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said several of the immigrants may have been eligible for political asylum. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA