Monday, October 15, 2007

Still they come

Ilegal immigrants are continuing to target the coastline of south-east Spain as a point of entry to Europe.

A total of 75 people - the majority from Algeria – were arrested at different points on Cartagena’s coast between Saturday and Tuesday last week. Some had already reached the shore and others were still in boats when they were detained.

A total of 300 people have now been arrested in the Murcia region in the last ten weeks for entering the country illegally. In the latest incident, Guardia Civil picked up seven Algerians at La Colina urbanisation close to the La Manga resort at around 08.30 last Tuesday morning. The seven were not carrying any personal documents and although their clothes were still wet, they were in good health.

The Portuguese fishing boat, Corisco which is based at Santa Pola rescued 50 Libyans, including five women and three children, from an inflatable boat on Saturday. The boat was already partially deflated when Corisco spotted  it and sank soon after the rescue took place.

Thankfully the Captain was given permission to disembark the "passengers" in Tripoli and so was able to continue fishing. The Corisco is due back in Santa Pola at the end of the month.

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