Spain intercepts 125 migrants
2007-08-23 22:05
Madrid - Spanish rescue services said they intercepted 125 African migrants in a dilapidated boat off Spain's Canary Islands on Thursday, bringing the total to 300 in less than 24 hours.
The discovery came as Spanish officials said an EU-coordinated surveillance unit operating off the west African coast had intercepted 5 056 others in the first half of the year preparing to make the same hazardous trip which cost 13 people their lives earlier this week.
Survivors of one group said they had thrown 11 migrants who died during the voyage overboard while another was found dead on arrival in port Sunday and a 13th died later in hospital.
Twenty-eight survivors were rescued by the fishing vessel southeast of Fuerteventura, one of the seven islands which make up the archipelago off the coast of Morocco.
By the end of June 6 306 immigrants had made it to the islands or to mainland Spain this year, a figure 55% down on the same period in 2006.
Last year saw overall arrivals total about 31 200, three times the previous annual record but this year the volume has dropped with the EU's border surveillance unit Frontex stepping up operations.
Since Spain and Morocco increased patrols last year to deter immigrants seeking to cross the Strait of Gibraltar almost all of the mainly sub-Saharan African migrants have made for the Canaries instead.
However, last week saw 60 caught trying to reach the south-eastern mainland coast off the city of Murcia, a route previously ignored by illegal border-crossers.
- AFP