MAURITANIA: Asian and African migrants stranded in Mauritania and screened by Spanish police continue to wait for countries willing to accept them.

Around 370 Asian and African migrants whose ship was intercepted at sea on its way to Spain continued to wait on Tuesday (February 13) for news over their fate. The migrants came ashore on Monday (February 12) in northern Mauritania where Spanish police were on hand to screen them. Around 370 Asian and African migrants whose ship was intercepted at sea on its way to Spain continued to wait on Tuesday (February 13) for news over their fate. The migrants came ashore on Monday (February 12) in northern Mauritania where Spanish police were waiting to screen them. In what observers described as an almost entirely Spanish immigration control operation conducted outside Spain, the migrants, all men, filed off the battered Marine 1 freighter onto a dock at the Mauritanian port of Nouadhibou. They were given health checks and food and drink by Spanish and Mauritanian Red Cross officials in a makeshift treatment centre, and then passed into the custody of dozens of Spanish police officers for identity screening. The operation was agreed at the weekend between Mauritania and Spain. It followed a diplomatic wrangle last week over who should take charge of the migrants, whose vessel was intercepted by the Spanish coastguard off West Africa over a week ago. Spanish officials sent four military planes to Mauritania to repatriate the migrants, but only one of the four had taken off by Tuesday afternoon. It headed south to Guinea-Bissau, a nation on the Atlantic coast near where the boat initially departed, but was turned back in mid-air, after Guinean officials refused to let it land. It returned to Mauritania, where officials initially refused to allow it to land, but eventually let it land for refuelling, the police chief of Nouadhibou said. Soon after, it took off for what the governor of Nouadhibou called an unknown destination. The plane was carrying about 30 African migrants, who come from countries including Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone. About 370 others are thought to be from Pakistan, mostly from the troubled region of Kashmir, but officials say many have refused to divulge their identities in an attempt to avoid repatriation. Red Cross officials said some of the migrants were suffering from bronchitis, diarrhoea and sea sickness. Some looked apprehensive as they came ashore to face a reception committee that included dozens of Spanish police, in civilian clothes but wearing fluorescent green jackets. Consular officials from India, Pakistan and Guinea were also at the dock to meet the migrants, who had said they were mostly from Indian Kashmir but were also thought to include sub-Saharan Africans. Mauritania had initially refused to accept the Marine 1, which is believed to have set sail from Guinea and was heading towards Spain's Canary islands. The ship sent out an SOS signal after its motors broke down in international waters off Senegal on Feb. 2 and was intercepted the next day by the Spanish coastguard which towed it close to Mauritania's fishing port of Nouadhibou. The Marine 1 has become a test case for Spain, which launched a diplomatic offensive in West Africa last year in a bid to stem soaring illegal migration from the poverty-stricken region to the Canaries. Madrid has been offering increased aid in return for help to halt clandestine migration.

ITN Source | February 14, 2007

Tags:. .centre. .sickness. .pakistan. .illegal. .committee