MADRID - More than 450 Africans packed into precarious longboats landed on the Canary Islands over the weekend as the Spanish islands faced a fresh wave of illegal immigration from West Africa.
In one 15-hour period, 259 illegal immigrants landed on the beaches of Tenerife after making the perilous voyage from the African mainland.
The latest arrivals on the islands bring this year's total to about 4500 people - already more than the whole of last year.
The weekend's arrivals are lower than in mid-March, when almost 1000 immigrants landed over five days, but more and more people are now packed into each longboat.
The wood or fibreglass vessels normally carry 50 to 60 passengers, but the three that arrived on Saturday carried 73, 70 and 116 people, respectively.
The Red Cross estimates that more than 1000 Africans desperate to emigrate to Europe have died trying to reach the islands this year, either drowning or dying of hunger during a sea voyage of about 320km.
- REUTERS
Canary Islands' rising tide of refugees
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