Spain Tries to Block Senegal Migration Route

Three patrol boats from Spain and Italy were heading towards Senegal yesterday to try to stop vessels bringing migrants into Europe via the Canary Islands.

The boats, which will team up with three Senegalese patrol vessels, are moving into place along the African coastline as Spanish authorities report that as many migrants have reached the Canary Islands in August as in the whole of last year. Close to 6,000 immigrants arrived over August, compared with 4,751 for the whole of 2005.

A further 250 immigrants arrived in three canoe-shaped west African fishing boats known as "cayucos" on Wednesday, Canary Islands officials said yesterday.

The move also came as Mauritania reported finding 84 corpses of Senegalese migrants who drowned when their fishing boat capsized during the week-long journey towards the Canary Islands.

Authorities on the Canary Islands have estimated the number who have drowned along the Atlantic route at more than 550.

Some 19,000 immigrants have arrived on the Canary Islands' beaches from Africa over the past year - meaning that around one in 35 of those who try to get into Europe die before they arrive.

Spain has provided police in both Senegal and Mauritania with extra equipment to help them patrol the migration route.

"With the means offered by Spain, the mixed security forces are going to have a force of sufficient, dissuasive strength to put an end to this scourge," Senegalese interior minister Ousmane Ngom said.

The route opened last year after Morocco blocked a shorter route from the western Sahara.