Spain rounds up 127 Africans heading for Canarys
Expatica News
24 August 2007
MADRID – A Spanish rescue boat brought 127 new African migrants to Spain's Canary Islands on Friday after intercepting them off the coast, bringing the total arrivals in two days to 310, officials said.
The all-male group appeared to be in good health and included around 10 minors, a spokeswoman for the local administration on the island of Tenerife told AFP.
A sailing boat alerted Spanish sea rescue services after spotting a motorised fishing boat transporting the migrants overnight.
Rescue services towed it to the island of El Hierro early Friday.
The boat brought the total to 310 clandestine Africans arriving in the Canaries in two days and more than 400 in four days.
Arrivals of undocumented African migrants to the Canaries have nonetheless significantly dropped compared with an influx of more than 31,200 recorded in 2006, three times more than the previous annual record.
[Copyright AFP with Expatica]