Spain Holds 550 African Immigrants

Spanish police yesterday detained 550 African immigrants on beaches in the Canary Islands and the southern provinces of Cadiz and Granada in the biggest influx this year of those who make the dangerous night-time boat trip from Morocco.

It was unclear how many immigrants had escaped police patrols and whether this was the largest number of African immigrants to reach Spanish beaches in one day.

Police said the arrival of nine large rubber speedboats, packed with immigrants from Morocco and other parts of Africa, at beaches around the southern town of Tarifa was part of a new tactic being used by people traffickers in an attempt to overwhelm them.

Cristina Clavain, an interior ministry spokeswoman in the southern city of Cadiz, said some of the boats had contained more than 60 people. Those on board included three babies, six pregnant women and up to 12 children.

Half of those captured were Moroccan and, apart from the children, were due to be sent back within three days.

The other half came mostly from sub-Saharan countries and had travelled north to seek a place in one of the boats that regularly go to Spain.

Every year thousands of people set out to cross the 30-mile Strait of Gibraltar which separates Spain from Africa, while thousands take the long trip west from Morocco to the Canary Islands. Last year a Moroccan immigrants' group said 4,000 people had died or disappeared in the attempt.

Spain last year repatriated 74,467 immigrants - 58% more than in 2001 - of whom 23,381 were Moroccan.