The bodies of 13 people, who, Spanish police suspect, were trying to get into Europe illegally, washed up on Spain's southern coast yesterday.
Two or three of five women among the group may have been pregnant, police said, speaking to reporters on the rocky shore at Tarifa, a popular entry point for thousands of illegal immigrants.
A police helicopter on early morning patrol of the narrow strait separating Spain from Morocco earlier had spotted people in a boat. Police said the skipper may have been an immigrant smuggler who forced his charges into the water in order to flee.
"For the time being there are 13 Moroccan and sub-Saharan Africans . . . and we do not rule out finding more bodies," a police spokeswoman said. The bodies were found along a deserted stretch of coast, about 3km from the nearest town.
According to the Moroccan Workers' and Immigrants' Association in Spain, some 4,000 people have died or disappeared since 1997 in the Strait of Gibraltar and in the Atlantic waters between Africa and Spain's Canary Islands.
Last year Spanish police intercepted around 18,000 immigrants trying to illegally enter Spain by sea and expelled, deported or refused entry to 44,800 immigrants without papers, according to official statistics. The increasing numbers of illegal immigrants landing on Spain's southern shores from its north African neighbour, Morocco, has been a sore point in diplomatic relations between the two countries.
A crisis erupted last month when Moroccan troops occupied a tiny disputed islet off its northern coast, which is claimed by Spain. Spain responded by sending its military to take the island by force.
Spain, a major southern European entry point for Africans fleeing poverty and war, last year strengthened its immigration laws, making it more difficult for migrants to get papers in the country, which has an immigrant population of 1.3 million out of nearly 41 million.
- (Reuters)