SENEGAL: Spanish ship lands migrant boat survivor in Senegal

The lone survivor from a voyage of around 50 African illegal migrants has been returned to Senegal by a Spanish hospital ship. A Spanish hospital ship arrived in Senegal's port capital of Dhaka late on Friday (October 26), carrying the lone survivor from a voyage of African illegal migrants in which around 50 died after three weeks lost at sea. He was found by a Spanish fishing boat, along with seven bodies, in a halfsunk open-topped wooden boat adrift off Mauritania on Wednesday. The bodies and survivor were then transferred to the Spanish hospital and rescue vessel Esperanza del Mar. The man looked thin and tired, but did not speak as he was carried by stretcher to an ambulance. Officials said he was Senegalese, but did not name him. It was the latest tragedy involving thousands of illegal migrants in rickety boats who attempt the dangerous journey every year from the West Coast of Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands, seeking work in Europe. Many die in the attempt. The young survivor told rescuers the migrants' boat carrying some 50 people left the Mauritanian port of Nouadhibou more than 20 days ago and then got into difficulties on the high seas. He said the dead were thrown or washed overboard after they died. Aircraft and patrol boats from Spain and other European countries now regularly sweep the waters off West Africa to try to intercept illegal migrant boats.

ITN Source | October 28, 2007

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