The European Union will deploy vessels and aircraft to intercept boats carrying undocumented immigrants before they leave West African waters, the Spanish daily El Pais reported on Wednesday.
Representatives of the European frontier agency Frontex, 14 countries, the European Commission and Europol met on Tuesday in Madrid to discuss plans to help Spain stem the influx of illegals arriving in the Canary Islands.
Spanish navy vessels are already patrolling the Canaries coasts, but their mission has been to persuade immigrants to turn back rather than taking active measures against them.
Four vessels, a reconnaissance plane and a helicopter deployed by the EU in July will seek to intercept immigrant boats in the territorial waters of Senegal, Mauritania and Cape Verde, according to the paper.
The migrants will then be handed over to the local authorities. So far, only Mauritania has authorised the EU to patrol its waters, but agreements with Senegal and Cape Verde were reportedly in the pipeline.
Spain will contribute two vessels and a helicopter, Italy a vessel and a reconnaissance plane, and France a vessel to the operation. Two Portuguese vessels and a Finnish and a British airplane will be on standby.
The vessels contributed by Spain are already patrolling the Mauritanian coast. One of them, the jointly manned MS Rio Duero, has captured nearly 300 illegals in 20 days.
A coordination centre will be established on the Canary Island of Tenerife, where EU experts will help in tasks such as identifying immigrants.
The countries involved are Spain, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Norway, Britain and Austria.
The Canary Islands have received about 10 000 African undocumented immigrants this year. Most of the boats leave from Senegal and Mauritania. Many of them make stopovers in the Cape Verde Islands.
Simultaneously with the EU operation, Spain is helping Mauritania build up its maritime frontier control service, which only had one vessel to monitor illegal immigration, according to media reports.
Madrid will donate four vessels, three four-wheel drive vehicles, computers and a bus to Nouakchott. – Sapa-DPA