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Immigrants feared drowned
27/08/2006 11:38 - (SA)
Nouakchott - Dozens of illegal immigrants were feared drowned after 14 bodies washed ashore in Mauritania on Saturday, while another 179 people heading to Spain's Canary Islands were rescued before their boats sank, a police official said.
The 14 dead washed ashore on the beaches of the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, probably after their boat capsized, police speculated. They feared dozens more may have died.
There are probably "more bodies in the ocean and we must monitor the beaches, as the boats usually carry 90 to 96 people," said the police official who requested anonymity.
"They were certainly illegal immigrants because we haven't had any reports of missing fishermen."
However, Mauritanian authorities managed to rescue 179 illegal immigrants heading from Senegal to Spain's Canary Islands aboard two makeshift boats.
One of the boats, with 92 people on board, had been taking on water for two days and broke up moments after the migrants were rescued.
"The past two days we were working in shifts to bail out water from the boat, which had cracked," the police quoted one of the survivors as saying.
More than 18 000 illegal immigrants have arrived at Spain's Canary Islands on makeshift boats since the beginning of the year, far outstripping the last record figure in 2002 when 9 929 clandestine migrants were apprehended near the Atlantic archipelago.
With patrols stepped up along Spain's Mediterranean coast, illegal immigrants have increasingly turned to making long and risky voyages to the Canaries.
Senegal last week agreed in principle to join an EU operation to help patrol the northwestern African coast, which Mauritania and Cape Verde have already joined.
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