By Tom Pfeiffer

HOURIBGA, Morocco, May 29 (Reuters) They get rich luring the young with tales of a promised land, they impoverish families with huge fees and up to a fifth of their clients end up dead.

But for poor Moroccans desperate for a new start in life, immigrant trafficking gangs are modern-day Robin Hoods who risk jail to spirit their clients into fortress Europe.

Belgacem Abdelhilal was looking after himself and his widowed mother by hawking sunglasses in his home town of Khouribga when an acquaintance offered him a trip to Spain.

''I thought 'If so many illiterate people can make a go of it in Europe, why shouldn't I?' I was the only man in the family -- it was my duty.'' His mother sold her jewellery and borrowed from relatives to pay the trafficker.

Abdelhilal was holed up for 15 days in a seedy hotel in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta before he was told the ferry supposed to take him and his companions to the mainland was no more than a flimsy, five-metre (16 ft) wooden boat.

''I went down on my knees and said the prayer you normally give for someone already dead,'' he says. ''It was as if we already knew our fate.'' Thrown around by the waves, the boat crawled within sight of the lights of Spain before it began to rain. The vessel filled with water and sank. Abdelhilal was pulled from the water by a Spanish coastguard, whose name -- Paco -- he adopted in gratitude.

He was returned to Morocco shortly afterwards.

'IMMIGRANT PROLETARIAT' According to the Red Cross, more than 1,000 people have died this year trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands across the Atlantic. Fishing boats packed with people from sub-Saharan Africa arrive in the Canaries each day.

''The people who take these pateras (boats) are the immigrant proletariat,'' says Khalil Jemmah, who works with Abdelhilal at Moroccan illegal immigrant family support group AFVIC in Khouribga.

''Many have never seen the sea and have no idea of the danger.'' Tightened surveillance and reinforced coastal patrols have made it harder than ever for African migrants to reach Europe.

Their desperation means more money for the gangs in control of the remaining migrant routes, who can charge huge sums while paying little regard to safety and offering no guarantee of success.

It costs almost 3,000 euros (3,829 dollar) for a seat in a patera, says Abdelhilal, in a country where the annual minimum wage is about 2,400 euros.

For a fake passport, the fee is around 6,000 euros while those who can afford it can buy a non-existent European work contract for up to 9,000 euros.

A cheaper option is a brief marriage to a Moroccan living in Europe.

''You wouldn't believe how many weddings there are here in August when the expats come home, and how many divorces in October and November,'' says Abdelhilal.

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