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27 September 2007
DAKAR – Police in Senegal have arrested 18 would-be illegal immigrants who were about to set sail for the Spanish Canary Islands, authorities in the West African nation said on Thursday.
“We arrested 18 people in Mbour (about 100 kilometres south of the capital) on Sunday night. There was a trafficker and the clients,” police spokesman Alioune Ndiaye told AFP.
Police swooped in on the group after being alerted of their imminent departure. The group was due to appear before a court on Thursday.
The number of migrants taking off in small rickety wooden fishing boats has declined considerably this year due in part to stepped up patrols off the west African coast, forcing immigrants to look elsewhere.
More than 31,200 immigrants arrived in the Canary Islands last year, more than tripling the previous annual record and overwhelming Spanish authorities in the island chain off the north African Sahara coast, and some 7,000 have made it this year.
(Copyright AFP with Expatica)
Subject: Spanish news