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50 migrants 'feared drowned'
20/07/2007 20:48 - (SA)
Santa Cruz - Rescuers searched for a second day on Friday off Spain's Canary Islands for about 50 African migrants who are missing and feared drowned after their boat capsized in heavy seas.
"We are continuing to search," a spokesperson for the Spanish sea rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo told AFP.
Forty-eight people were plucked from the Mediterranean by two maritime rescue vessels on Thursday after their fishing boat capsized in 3m waves whipped up by strong winds, around 100 nautical miles southwest of Tenerife.
But hopes were fading for about 50 others whom survivors say were on the vessel when it overturned as it was being approached by one of the Spanish boats.
'Humanitarian disaster'
If the loss is confirmed, it would be one of the worst disasters linked to bids by would-be illegal immigrants to make the hazardous crossing into Europe.
The biggest previous loss of life was of 34 North African migrants drowned in the Bay of Cadiz in southern Spain.
Immigration Minister Consuelo Rumi told national radio that Spain, one of the main gateways to Europe for illegal immigrants, was facing a "humanitarian disaster".
She believed the migrants' voyage began in Guinea-Bissau on the west coast of Africa, adding that reports in the daily El Pais that the survivors spoke English and claimed to have come from Liberia and Ghana should be treated with caution.
A helicopter picked up three bodies on Thursday, but no new sightings had been made by Friday morning, the Salvamento Maritimo spokesperson said.
Cross the Gibraltar Strait
A rescue ship, the Luz de Mar, brought 36 survivors into Puerto de los Christianos on Tenerife on Thursday evening, while 12 more were expected to arrive aboard the second rescue vessel Conde de Godomar on Friday afternoon.
A further two Salvamento Maritimo ships as well as a French naval vessel backed by spotter planes and helicopters were continuing the sea search.
The Canary Islands have been a magnet in recent years for mainly sub-Saharan immigrants, being the closest European landfall.
About 31 200 immigrants arrived in the Spanish archipelago last year, more than tripling the previous annual record and overwhelming the island chain's authorities.
More than 250 would-be immigrants have reached the islands since Sunday with 4 700 arriving since January, despite tighter surveillance of the African coastline in recent months by the EU border patrol agency, Frontex.
Spain and Morocco tightened cooperation in an effort to reduce the number of people trying to cross the Gibraltar Strait dividing Spain from the North African coast.
- AFP
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