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NOUAKCHOTT - At least 47 migrants died trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands after drifting for more than two weeks off the west coast of Africa in two boats, police sources said.
Mauritania soldiers discovered 42 bodies in the sea near the northern port city of Nouadhibou, which lies on the frontier with Western Sahara. Five more died in hospital, but authorities were able to rescue 96 others, who were being held in a detention centre in Nouadhibou.
"They had been at sea for 19 days," said one of the sources. "They are mainly Senegalese, Gambians and Malians."
Scores of illegal migrants, desperate for a better life in Europe, pay thousands of dollars each for a place in one of the overcrowded, wooden fishing boats for the perilous trip.
- Reuters
