SPAIN: Spanish police intercepted 80 African and Asian migrants yesterday as they tried to reach Fuerteventura, one of the Spanish Canary Islands, in two rickety boats, police said.
Police took the migrants to temporary holding centres and Spanish authorities will try to send them back where they came from. Red Cross paramedics treated three children weakened by the crossing and one man went to hospital with hypothermia.
Thousands of would-be immigrants into the European Union attempt to cross from the coast of West Africa to the Canaries every year, and the traffic intensifies in summer when conditions at sea are better.
Five migrants, including a mother and her baby, died trying to reach the southern coast of mainland Spain last Saturday. The European Commission estimates 500,000 illegal migrants enter the bloc each year . - (Reuters)
