Human Smuggling in the High Seas

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Haitian immigrants demand justice in boat disaster off Turks and Caicos
12 May 2007

SOUTH DOCK, Turks and Caicos Islands (AP) - Haitian immigrants were simmering with anger Friday over allegations that a Turks and Caicos patrol boat may have caused a packed vessel to capsize last week, killing at least 61 of their countrymen.

The Turks and Caicos Islands government has opened an investigation into the May 4 disaster, the worst to hit Haitian migrants in years. Survivors said the coast guard crew rammed their rickety sailboat as it approached the shore, then towed it into shark-filled waters, causing it to capsize, and abandoned them.

"This is our blood. We will demand justice if what the migrants say is true," said Line Francois, pastor of All Saints Evangelical Assembly, a Haitian Protestant church on the territory's main island. "But when you're a foreigner living in another country, your voice is not that strong."

The Turks and Caicos government said in a statement Friday that a police boat was towing the migrants toward shore and immediately offered help when their boat overturned, disputing migrants' account that they were being led away from land and that police initially refused to rescue them.

Haitian immigrants form an essential low-income work force here, laboring to build luxurious beachfront homes, collect trash and carry suitcases for tourists. Many say allegations in the capsizing underscored their belief that they get treated like second-class citizens compared to locals, known in the Turks and Caicos as "belongers."

Many Haitians arrive here illegally by boat, paying about US$400 (euro300) for the two-day journey across 125 miles (200 kilometers) of ocean. Several interviewed by The Associated Press recounted stories of illegal Haitian immigrants being robbed, beaten and deported by immigration agents before they could lodge a complaint.

"Dogs get treated better than Haitians here," spat a 33-year-old Haitian hotel worker, who declined to give his name for fear of retribution. He called what happened to the migrants last week a "crime" but doubted it would ever be resolved.

"Haitians don't get justice in this place," he said.

But some said their home country, not the Turks and Caicos, is to blame.

"The Haitian government didn't do its work and create jobs," said Rudy Delancy, a taxi driver who has lived here for more than 10 years. "That's why people risk their lives and get on the boats."

Haiti's government ordered flags lowered to half-mast for an official period of mourning for the lost migrants, and the Interior Ministry promised to crack down on human traffickers even though the country's coast guard has only a handful of working boats.

In 1998, Turks and Caicos Islands police allegedly opened fire on a boat packed with more than 100 Haitian migrants, touching off a capsizing that led to the drowning of dozens. Officials said the police fired warning shots and none hit the migrants or the boat.

Earlier this year, roughly 50 Haitian migrants died after a fuel tank exploded on their homemade boat as the migrants were traveling from the northern Haitian town of Cap-Haitien to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Two of the passengers were rescued by an American couple sailing from Panama to Antigua.

Haitians have been coming to the Turks and Caicos for years, fleeing the violence and social turmoil of the Western Hemisphere's poorest country for jobs as construction workers, janitors, landscapers and bellhops in the wealthy territory of 33,000.

In contrast to the divers and yachters who stay in luxury hotels along white-sand beaches, the Haitians mostly live in ramshackle communities. Still, the conditions are far superior to life back home.

Many are proud of having been part of a work force that converted the Turks and Caicos from a mosquito-infested backwater to a popular resort.

"Haitians built this place," said Ronald Gardiner, a Haitian-born businessman who used to host a Creole-language radio program in the Turks and Caicos. "When I came here 22 years ago, there was no fresh water, no electricity and mosquitoes were the king of the island. Now look at it."

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300 African migrants land in Canary Islands in 24 hrs

MADRID, May 12, 2007 (AFP) - A new boat-load of illegal would-be African immigrants landed Saturday on the Spanish Canary Islands, bringing the number of arrivals to more than 300 in 24 hours, local authorities said.

Some 101 people from sub-Saharan Africa were aboard the latest vessel which arrived early Saturday on the island of Gran Canaria, a local authority representative said.

"All these people are apparently in good health," the official said.

About a dozen boats carrying more than 200 people had arrived early Friday.

More than 31,000 illegal immigrants reached the Canary Islands, seen as an outpost for entry into the European Union, from West Africa last year, six times more than in 2005. Many others died on the journey.

But tighter maritime surveillance and bad weather conditions have led to a sharp drop in arrivals in the archipelago this year. Only 2,166 migrants reached the Canary Islands in the first four months of this year, compared to 4,606 for the same period in 2006.

However, arrivals have intensified in the last two weeks.

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Tunisian coastguard rescues 35 Africans heading for Italy

TUNIS, May 14, 2007 (AFP) - Tunisian coastguard have rescued 35 African would-be immigrants who were trying to sail to Italy from the Libyan coast, port officials said Monday.

The group, which included one woman, was towed back to the southern port of Sfax last Friday. The coastguard was alerted by Tunisian fishermen.

One local newspaper, Assabeh Al-ousboui, reported that the group had been trying to get to the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is located between the Tunisian coast and the island of Malta.

At the time they were found they had been lost for several days and had used up their food and water.

The Tunisian and Libyan coastline often serves as a point of departure for would-be immigrants to Europe, who either head for the Italian or Spanish islands.

Tunisia has sent the people smugglers who run these operations to jail and deported the would-be immigrants.

More than 1,000 people have landed on Spanish or Italian territory since last Thursday. On Monday, boats carrying nearly 350 Africans landed on the Canary Islands.

Officials say the arrival of warm weather and calm seas, which reduce the risks of the sea crossing, is behind the sudden rise in the number of boats trying to reach Spain from Africa.

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Survivor of boat carrying illegal migrants rescued off Malta

VALETTA, May 18, 2007 (AFP) - Fishermen rescued a man from the waters off Malta Friday, apparently the sole survivor of a boat carrying what may have been as many as 30 would-be immigrants, a news agency said.

The survivor told the crew of the trawler "Laura 2" that the boat in which he had been travelling had sunk overnight Thursday, but could not say how many other people had been on board, a Maltese army spokesman told AFP.

According to Ansa news agency, the survivor said there had been about 30 passengers on board the boat, which left from the Libyan coast.

A search plane and two boats were dispatched to the site where the vessel is believed to have sunk.

Malta, a tiny European Union country with 400,000 residents, saw the arrival of 1,780 immigrants in 2006 and has regularly asked the EU for help in dealing with the influx.

Many illegal immigrants have died while attempting to make the perilous journey, often from Africa, in dilapidated vessels.

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Seach ongoing for 53 migrants adrift off Malta: ANSA

ROME, May 21, 2007 (AFP) - The Maltese army was still searching as the sun set Monday for a small boat packed with 53 people that was adrift south of the Mediterranean island after its engine failed, the ANSA news agency reported.

The passengers had raised the alarm by calling Maltese authorities on a cell phone saying their fibreglass boat was taking on water, the Italian news agency said.

A reconnaissance plane spotted the boat some 150 kilometers (100 miles) south of Malta.

Pictures released to the media showed the huddled migrants, some wearing life vests.

One man is seen waving a red cloth to attract the pilot's attention, while another is bailing out water using a jerrycan.

An army spokesman told AFP in the late afternoon that a patrol boat had been sent to the area to rescue the migrants.

The search was continuing Monday evening, ANSA reported.

Meanwhile the army patrol boat spotted another boat with about 20 would-be immigrants, ANSA said.

Last Friday, a 23-year-old man who was plucked from the sea by fishermen said he was the sole survivor of a shipwreck off Malta.

He said 28 other people from north Africa perished in the accident.

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Waves of illegal immigrants intercepted in Malta

VALLETTA, May 23, 2007 (AFP) - An Italian tugboat has intercepted 26 illegal immigrants off Malta's coast and they were due to arrive in the capital Valetta late Wednesday, taking the number of such arrivals since January to 160.

Sources told AFP that the "Citta d'Augusta" picked up 26 immigrants, including one woman, 25 nautical miles south of the Mediterranean island.

The Armed Forces of Malta sent a patrol boat and picked up the immigrants. They are expected to arrive at Valetta harbour on Wednesday night.

This is the sixth group of clandestine immigrants apprehended in Malta and the third to arrive in the island in the last 24 hours.

The police on Wednesday said a boat ferrying illegal immigrants was reported at the tourist bay of Birzebbuga. Twenty-one men, two women and a girl were found on the vessel on Tuesday night.

Another group of 29 men entered the same bay and were sighted by security forces.

Meanwhile, the Italian office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed grave concern for the fate of 53 missing persons aboard a boat last sighted on Monday off Malta's coast.

The office appealed to "the governments of the region to increase and coordinate their efforts to find the boat and give assistance to those on board.

Malta has suspended rescue efforts because no contact had been made with the boat.

Malta, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the Libyan coast receives hundreds of illegal immigrants, mainly from Africa, as they head for the Italian coast and European Union states.

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Italian ship pulls bodies of 11 migrants from sea, 3 more missing
18 June 2007

ROME (AP) - An Italian navy ship pulled the bodies of 11 would-be immigrants from the Mediterranean while rescue vessels continued to search Monday for the remains of three others still missing, officials said.

A search and rescue aircraft on Sunday spotted 14 bodies of what coast guard officials said were migrants who were trying to cross the sea from north Africa in search of new lives in Europe.

The patrol boat "Spica" was heading for the southern Sicilian coast town of Porto Empedocle, where the 11 bodies so far located will be turned over to investigators, said the coast guard in Palermo, Sicily.

The bodies were found 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Lampedusa, a tiny Italian fishing island that is closer to Africa than mainland Italy. It was not yet known how long the immigrants had been at sea or how they died in what is the latest in a string of incidents involving migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

In May, 27 migrants were left clinging to a tuna net for three days off Malta's coast after being denied access to a Maltese fishing boat. Earlier this month, a French naval frigate found the bodies of 18 people believed to be migrants off the coast of Malta.

The incidents prompted angry statements from European Union officials, and added urgency to efforts to launch new monitoring and patrol missions by the EU's external borders agency, Frontex.

Thousands of migrants try to reach Italy's coasts every year, brought in by smugglers who make lucrative runs on often fragile and overcrowded boats. The crossings usually increase during the summer thanks to good weather and calm seas.

If the migrants do not have the necessary documents and a job awaiting them in Italy, they are issued with deportation papers, but authorities say many never leave and instead make their way up the peninsula to find work or family in continental Europe.

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226 African migrants caught entering Spain's Canary Islands
19 June 2007

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Spanish authorities caught more than 200 African migrants trying to enter the Canary Islands on three boats, the Red Cross said Tuesday.

One hundred migrants arrived Monday night on the island of Tenerife, and another 94 were picked up after arriving Tuesday morning on Gran Canaria, the Red Cross said. Of the latter, five were treated for hypothermia, the newspaper El Mundo reported.

One minor was aboard a boat carrying 32 people that arrived at Lanzarote, another of the islands in the Spanish archipelago off west Africa.

The Red Cross said the number of migrants arriving on the Canary Islands has increased in recent weeks.

Last year, more than 30,000 immigrants seeking a better life in Europe were intercepted while sailing to the Canaries in crowded boats.

Normally, migrants who arrive on the Canary Islands without papers are detained for 40 days and eventually released without work permits or residency papers if the Spanish authorities are unable to identify them. Migrants who can be identified are deported to their countries of origin.

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More than 20 migrants missing off Malta
22 June 2007

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) - More than 20 migrants were missing off the coast of Malta, authorities said Friday, citing a man rescued at sea.

The rescued migrant was picked up by an Italian-registered fishing boat on Thursday night about 74 miles (119 kilometers) south of Malta, military officials said.

He told authorities he had been traveling in a boat with 23 other migrants, they said. The fishing boat searched the area, but located neither the other migrants nor the migrant boat, Maltese authorities said, without giving details about what might have happened to the migrant boat.

Separately, a group of 28 migrants, including seven women and three children, were picked up and brought ashore on the Mediterranean island Friday morning.

Boats crammed with clandestine migrants set sail nearly nightly from Libya, with many of them trying to reach Italy and land undetected, authorities say. The trips, often aboard rickety vessels, are organized by smugglers who sometimes abandon the passenger boats at sea while they take off in motorized dinghies, according to investigations.

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INTERVIEW-Spanish hotel chains eye Africa amid migrant crisis

DAKAR, June 25 (Reuters) - Spain's major hotel chains are checking out investment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa as their government seeks to involve private business in its plan to curb illegal migration from the world's poorest continent.

"There is a clear concern on the part of the Spanish authorities to encourage a development of this type and we'd obviously be interested if the right framework existed," said Miguel Barcelo, director-general of expansion in Europe for the Barcelo Group, which has hotels in Morocco and Tunisia.

"If we don't do it, our competitors will," he said in an interview at the weekend.

Executives from Barcelo Hotels and Resorts and the Sol Melia chain were among a 30-strong delegation of Spanish business leaders who accompanied two ministers in a visit to Senegal at the weekend. It was the biggest Spanish delegation of its kind ever to visit the former French colony in West Africa.

Madrid is urging Spanish companies to contract legal workers in Senegal and other West African countries and to consider making job-creating investments there to help staunch a flood of African illegal migrants heading for Europe -- 35,000 last year came ashore in the Spanish Canary Islands in rickety open boats.

Spain's Labour Minister Jesus Caldera told the executives they would find "fertile ground" for investment in Senegal as Madrid and Dakar moved to turn the migrant crisis into an opportunity for strengthened economic and political ties.

"This would be our first experience in sub-Saharan Africa," Barcelo said.

He added that while many Spanish hotel chains like Barcelo had concentrated their overseas investments in Latin America and the Caribbean, which had cultural and language affinities with Spain, there was a search for new destinations in a globalised market.

"We think the Spanish product is tremendously competitive," he said.

AFRICA NEEDS PROMOTING

In largely Muslim Senegal, leading European hotelier Accor has a prominent presence and other hotels are being constructed with capital from the Middle East and the Gulf States, many of them flush with oil cash.

Barcelo said while Africa was not an immediate priority, if his group did choose to invest in Senegal, it would look at the possibility of building or running urban hotels with four stars or more in the capital Dakar, and at the idea of a beachfront establishment on the Atlantic Coast.

But while he saw good prospects for contracting Senegalese workers for the group in Spain, Barcelo said Senegal would need to demonstrate to potential investors that it could match the Caribbean in terms of return on investment.

"The problem is that I can't come to Senegal if it costs me more to build a hotel here than in the Caribbean," he said, adding Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba were the "stars" of the Barcelo hotel business, and they still offered more growth.

Nevertheless, the Spanish chain was also looking at opportunities in the Cape Verde archipelago -- a former Portuguese African colony west of Senegal which is experiencing something of a real estate and tourism boom.

Barcelo said sub-Saharan Africa needed to be more widely sold as a tourist destination in the Spanish-speaking market, where the region still had a reputation for insecurity.

"Cultural adaptation is very important ... the (African) desination still does not have the same attractiveness and call of the Caribbean ... it's going to need promotion," he said.

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5 Migrants Die Trying to Reach Europe
19 July 2007

ROME (AP) - Two boats carrying would-be migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe sank Wednesday between Italy and Libya, leaving five people dead, including a child, Italian officials said. Eleven others were missing and presumed dead.

One of the boats sank some 40 miles south of Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island closer to north Africa than Sicily, coast guard officials in Palermo said.

An Italian Navy ship pulled 22 survivors from the water as well as the bodies of four migrants, including the child.

Earlier, another group of migrants that had left from north Africa was shipwrecked about 190 miles south of Lampedusa in an area assigned to Libyan authorities for search and rescue operations, coast guard headquarters in Rome said.

The Italian fishing boat Monastir took aboard 14 survivors and one body, and was heading to Lampedusa. The migrants said 11 more people had been aboard the sunken boat. The Monastir and other Italian fishing boats in the area searched for more survivors early Wednesday but found none, officials said.

In a third incident, a group of migrants traveling on a rickety boat hijacked a Tunisian fishing boat, and forced the crew to steer toward Lampedusa, according to the coast guard in Palermo, Sicily. A patrol ship was dispatched to intercept the boat, it said.

Thousands of migrants try to reach Italy's coasts every year, brought in by smugglers who make lucrative runs on often fragile and overcrowded boats.

If the migrants do not have the necessary documents and a job awaiting them in Italy, they are ordered to be deported, but authorities say many never leave and instead make their way up the peninsula to find work or family in continental Europe.

The crossings usually increase during the summer, due to good weather and calmer seas, but the voyage remains perilous, often deadly. In June, a French naval frigate found the bodies of 18 people believed to be migrants off the coast of Malta.

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British report criticizes Turks and Caicos in deadly Haitian capsizing
1 August 2007

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - British investigators found no evidence to support claims that Turks and Caicos authorities rammed a boat of Haitian migrants in May, but said police were ill-equipped to handle the capsizing that killed at least 61 people, according to a report released Wednesday.

Britain's Marine Accident Investigation Branch said instability caused by overcrowding most likely caused the boat to overturn in shark-filled waters just off the shore of Providenciales, one of the Turks and Caicos Islands, before dawn on May 4.

The report released by Haiti's ambassador to the Bahamas said the marine police were "ill-equipped" for the rescue operation and "suffered from poor communications, lack of central coordination, and slow mobilization of resources."

The Haitian sailboat was nearing the British Caribbean territory when a police vessel intercepted it and tried to tow it to shore -- even though it was overloaded with at least 150 migrants, the report said.

"It would appear that the sloop capsized while under tow," it said. "The trigger for the capsize cannot be stated with certainty, but the underlying problem of the inherent lack of stability ... was almost certainly the main causal factor in this tragic accident."

Survivors claimed police boat rammed them twice, capsizing their vessel and pitching passengers into the ocean.

But the report disputed that, saying the two boats "bumped" as police pulled up, causing a loud noise that alarmed migrants but did not tip their boat. "Close inspection of both vessels revealed no signs of collision damage," it said.

The Turks and Caicos government released a brief statement saying the authorities would review marine police procedures but offered no detailed response to the report.

British investigators also said the instability of overcrowded migrant boats was "well known" to marine police but found that "no instructions or operating procedures for mitigating the risk of capsize" had been given to police crew.

They suggested that escorting the boat to shore or removing the passengers from their boat would have been better options than towing under the circumstances.

The report recommended that the territory's police immediately cease all actions that would lead to a boat's capsize and establish procedures for safely interdicting migrant boats.

Haitians have made the dangerous voyage of about 200 miles to the Turks and Caicos for years, fleeing the violence and social turmoil of the Western Hemisphere's poorest country for jobs in the wealthy territory of 33,000.

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Cruise ship rescues 27 boat people near Malta

MADRID, Aug 10, 2007 (AFP) - A cruise ship on Friday plucked 27 boat people from the Mediterranean Sea some 60 nautical miles south of Malta, the Spanish charter company Vision Cruises said.

The would-be immigrants, only some of whom had life vests, were treated on board the Jules Verne and were headed towards Malta where they were expected in the early evening, a company spokesman told AFP in Madrid.

Earlier in the day the Jules Verne, with some 500 holidaymakers on board, spotted another boat in the same area with some 200 people aboard and cared for them until a maritime rescue team arrived.

Vision Cruises said the 27 rescued boat people had probably been on a different boat that sank.

The Maltese army said earlier that the Jules Verne had rescued 13 people, of whom one was airlifted to hospital with hypothermia, while 10 were feared missing in rough seas.

Also Friday the army rescued another 28 people including three women and brought them ashore.

Malta, the smallest member of the European Union, lies in the centre of the Mediterranean and is among the first ports of entry for migrants hoping to sneak into Europe.

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Italian coast guard intercepts 263 illegal immigrants off Lampedusa

ROME, Aug 12, 2007 (AFP) - Italian coast guard vessels intercepted a fishing boat carrying 263 illegal immigrants off the small Italian island of Lampedusa, media reports said Sunday.

Lampedusa coast guard officers spotted the boat in their territory overnight Saturday and escorted it to land, according to reports from the Italian news agency Ansa and television.

The boat's occupants, from Eritrea and other countries in the Horn of Africa, were taken to a holding centre.

The boat had been spotted off Malta on Friday by a French cruise ship.

Maltese authorities, alerted by the cruise ship, delivered water, supplies and life vests to the immigrants, but did not intercept them, saying they did not ask for assistance and wanted to continue toward Italy.

The Italian Coast guard officials also found an illegal immigrant's body in the water while escorting the boat but said they did not think it had come from the boat.

Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa is a frequent landing point for would-be immigrants from Africa seeking to make a new life in Europe.

In June alone, 77 people died and 133 disappeared in the Strait of Sicily while attempting to make the treacherous crossing, according to figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office.

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Greek coastguard detains scores of migrants

ATHENS, Aug 12, 2007 (AFP) - The Greek coastguard detained over 160 clandestine immigrants in separate operations in the Aegean Sea over the weekend, the merchant marine ministry said on Sunday.

The immigrants, claiming to be Afghan or Palestinian, were found on boats in the Agean Sea or on the Agean islands of Lesbos, Leros, Chios and Samos.

A 33-year-old man suspected to be a trafficker was arrested with them.

The Greek islands in the Aegean are used as landing points for would-be immigrants on the human-smuggling route from Asia to Europe.

Thousands are detained every year after risking their lives to cross from Turkey aboard rickety vessels, many of which sink en route.

Only a small minority are given asylum in Greece. The majority are temporarily detained before being released with orders to leave the country.

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Italy-bound Egyptians rescued in Mediterranean

CAIRO, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - The Egyptian navy has picked up 91 would-be illegal immigrants headed from Egypt to Italy after their boat broke down on the high seas, the local press reported on Wednesday.

The hungry and thirsty men were rescued off the coast of Cyprus on Tuesday having drifted for four days and were returned to Egypt by the navy after the owner of the fishing boat they were travelling in sent out an SOS.

Italy faces a constant influx of mostly north African immigrants who risk their lives trying to reach Europe, often in small boats.

Italian coastguards said earlier this week they had picked up 7,010 illegal immigrants alive from the sea since the start of the year.

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Waves of illegal immigrants wash ashore on French Indian Ocean Island of Mayotte
15 August 2007

SAINT-DENIS DE LA REUNION, Reunion (AP) - Nearly every day, boatloads of poor migrants land on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, hoping for a better life. But sometimes death awaits instead, as was the case earlier this week when 17 people were killed when their motorboat sank off the island's coast.

The wreck focused attention on illegal immigration to the French enclave, where estimates suggest that nearly a third of the 200,000 inhabitants do not have residency papers.

The vast majority of those living illegally in Mayotte come from the neighboring Comoros Islands, an impoverished archipelago nestled between the Africa and the northern tip of Madagascar.

France ruled the archipelago until the Comoros gained independence in 1975. Rocked since by coups and political turmoil, Comoros is one of the world's poorest countries, with a young and rapidly growing population of about 770,000.

Mayotte, on the eastern edge of the archipelago, chose to remain French and is now seen as an attractive destination for Comorans fleeing poverty and despair.

With just 70 kilometers (44 miles) separating Mayotte from the Comoran island of Anjouan, a boat ride to the French island normally takes just a few hours. The journey, on motorized wooden boats known as "kwassa-kwassas," costs about euro150-euro200 (US$204-$272).

But too often the trip ends in tragedy, local activists say.

"Each time, the passengers risk death," said Kamel Adjemout of the pro-immigrant organization Education Without Borders.

On Monday, a boat carrying about 38 people overturned in choppy seas while trying to evade the French coast guard, killing 17, including eight children. Seventeen others have not been accounted for.

This week's wreck brought to 32 the number of migrants who have died while making the crossing since March 2005, officials from Mayotte's prefecture said.

Local activists say that number does not take into account deaths that took place far from Mayotte's coasts and the real toll could be much higher.

Last year, France expelled nearly 14,000 illegal immigrants from Mayotte, the local prefecture said. And with the fight against illegal immigration a top priority of newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, many expect expulsion efforts on the island to be stepped up.

But activists warn an increase in expulsions could result in more dangerous crossings as people try to come back to Mayotte again.

Many of those who brave the journey "are people who were expelled though their lives are established in Mayotte," said activist Melanie Portmann. "They're just coming home."

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Associated Press writers Laurent Pirot and Pierre-Yves Roger in Paris, France, contributed to this report.

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More than 80 illegal migrants intercepted off Sicily

ROME, Aug 18, 2007 (AFP) - Italian authorities Saturday intercepted two boats carrying more than 80 would-be immigrants in the waters near the Mediterranean island of Sicily, the ANSA news agency reported.

The first boat with 37 men on board was found southeast off the southeast coast of Sicily, near Raguse.

The second boat with more than 40 people on board, including three women, was located near the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is south of Sicily.

The nationalities of the migrants were not disclosed, although they mostly come from the north African coast which is near the Italian islands, seen as a entry point to the European Union.

On Friday, more than 220 illegal migrants travelling in five boats landed in Lampedusa. There was also another tragic crossing as at least 14 people drowned at sea when their boat sank.

In all, some 800 would-be immigrants have been intercepted or rescued in the past week in the waters off Lampedusa.

All of the migrants after being identified will be sent to shelters on the islands where they will remain until the authorities decide whether to grant them asylum or to return them to their home countries.

According to official figures, 8,260 would-be immigrants reached the Italian shores in the first seven months of this year, which is a 30 percent drop from the number of illegal immigrants in 2006.

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125 African migrants intercepted off Canaries

MADRID, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - Spanish rescue services said they intercepted 125 African migrants in a dilapidated boat off Spain's Canary Islands on Thursday, bringing the total to 300 in less than 24 hours.

The discovery came as Spanish officials said an EU-coordinated surveillance unit operating off the west African coast had intercepted 5,056 others in the first half of the year preparing to make the same hazardous trip which cost 13 people their lives earlier this week.

Survivors of one group said they had thrown 11 migrants who died during the voyage overboard while another was found dead on arrival in port Sunday and a 13th died later in hospital.

Twenty-eight survivors were rescued by the fishing vessel southeast of Fuerteventura, one of the seven islands which make up the archipelago off the coast of Morocco.

By the end of June 6,306 immigrants had made it to the islands or to mainland Spain this year, a figure 55 percent down on the same period in 2006.

Last year saw overall arrivals total some 31,200, three times the previous annual record but this year the volume has dropped with the EU's border surveillance unit Frontex stepping up operations.

Since Spain and Morocco increased patrols last year to deter immigrants seeking to cross the Strait of Gibraltar almost all of the mainly sub-Saharan African migrants have made for the Canaries instead.

However, last week saw 60 caught trying to reach the south-eastern mainland coast off the city of Murcia, a route previously ignored by illegal border-crossers.

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New migrant influx off Spain's Canaries

MADRID, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - A Spanish rescue boat delivered 53 African migrants to Spain's Canary Islands after intercepting them offshore Saturday, bringing the total arrivals in three days to 363, officials said.

They warned that hundreds more were also on their way.

An AFP photographer on Tenerife reported the group was brought ashore at Los Cristianos on the south side of Tenerife and said authorities had indicated that two further fishing vessels, with a total of 240 people aboard, were likely to reach nearby El Hierro island on Sunday morning.

Arrivals of undocumented African migrants to the Canaries have nonetheless significantly dropped compared with an influx of more than 31,200 recorded in 2006, three times more than the previous annual record.