A Spanish hospital ship and patrol boats trawled international waters off Mauritania on Wednesday looking for would-be immigrants on a new and dangerous sea route from Africa to Europe that has already claimed more than 1 000 lives.
The hospital ship, which found the bodies of 24 drowned Africans last week, is part of an effort by Spain to stem the tide of rickety Mauritanian fishing boats arriving on the beaches of the Canary Islands over the past few months.
Police picked up 122 immigrants from the beaches of the holiday island of Tenerife on Tuesday. Local maritime rescue services said they had rescued nearly 600 people during the previous week.
Dozens of the long, canoe-like vessels known as pirogues are believed to have sunk in the Atlantic over the past four months. As many as 70 people drown in each. Spanish police and the Red Crescent in Mauritania have both put the death toll at more than 1 000 people.
Antonio Camacho, a junior interior minister, said on Wednesday the Spanish government had been aware of the huge number of people prepared to take the risky 960km trip for several months.
”We have been able to save lives in both Spanish and international waters,” Camacho told the SER radio station, as the country’s Socialist government said it was concerned for the welfare of the would-be immigrants.
Spanish police caught more than 331 Africans — who pay â,¬550 a head to traffickers — arriving at the Canaries on one day last week. That was a record for the islands, which used to be the target for migrants on a shorter route from the Western Sahara that has now been closed down by Morocco. More than 2 000 immigrants have arrived over the past 20 days.
With old routes across the Mediterranean also closed and Spain strengthening the fences around its North African enclaves at Ceuta and Melilla, would-be immigrants and traffickers have moved south to Mauritania.
Spanish soldiers were setting up a refugee camp for 400 people at Mauritanian port city of Nouadhibou on Wednesday. Impoverished Mauritania has said it lacks resources to deal with the migrants.
Mauritanian authorities rescued 24 famished and thirsty Africans last Friday after their ocean vessel bound for Europe foundered. Two weeks ago at least 52 drowned when two boats sunk after leaving Mauritania. But local workers have warned that any attempt to shut down the route would push immigrants into making even riskier trips.
”If they close off Nouadhibou it’ll be Senegal or the Cape Verde Islands they leave from next — ever longer distances and even more who will die,” Father Jerome Otitoyomi Dukiya, a Nigerian priest who cares for migrants in Nouadhibou, told Reuters. He said about 1 000 sub-Saharan Africans arrived in Nouadhibou every month heading for Europe.
Ibrahima, a Malian would-be immigrant to Europe, told Associated Press that he had tried to reach northern Morocco twice but had had to turn around after encountering security forces. He was waiting in Mauritania to try to reach the Canary Islands. ”It’s a shame for my family, who are waiting for me to send money from Europe,” he said. ”That’s why I’d rather die on the seas than return to Mali.” – Guardian Unlimited Â