Migrants row to Spain on airbed

2008-08-19 10:07

Madrid - Spanish police have detained seven Moroccans who were trying to row to Spain from north Africa on an airbed, Spanish media said on Monday.

It said they were among 85 would-be clandestine immigrants intercepted off the Spanish mainland since Sunday.

The seven men were picked up early on Sunday about seven kilometres off Punta Acebuche, near the southern city of Algeciras, the Europa Press news agency said. It said they were treated by the Red Cross on their arrival.

The maritime rescue service also picked up 38 migrants on Monday afternoon on a boat off the southeastern province of Almeria, after receiving a call on a cellphone from one of those on board who said they had been drifting for several days, Europa Press said.

Police intercepted another boat carrying 35 sub-Saharan migrants on Monday morning off the southern town of Tarifa. Five more were found aboard a rubber dinghy in the same area before dawn.

Spain has been a magnet in recent years for African migrants aspiring to reach Europe, although most head for the Canary Islands archipelago in the Atlantic.

Authorities fear many of the thousands of Africans who make the perilous journey towards Spanish soil each year die of thirst, hunger or exposure, but there is no way of knowing exactly how many have perished.

Spain has worked with other European Union nations to increase air and sea patrols and it has signed repatriation agreements with several African nations that have made it easier to send back clandestine migrants.

During the first seven months of this year, 7 165 migrants reached Spain by boat, a 9.1% drop over the same period last year, and a 58.9% decline over 2006, the interior ministry said last week.

- AFP