Spanish ship heads to Senegal with rescued migrants

DAKAR, Apr 25 (Reuters) A Spanish hospital ship is taking 91 African migrants, some badly hurt, to Senegal after they stormed a Spanish fishing boat off Mauritania to escape their own stricken craft, diplomats said today.

They said Senegal's government had agreed in principle to allow the migrants on the hospital ship Esperanza del Mar to disembark in the West African country's port capital, where they would arrive early tomorrow.

The incident was the latest migrant problem to confront Spanish authorities, who have been trying to stem a flood of thousands of illegal job seekers from Sub-Saharan Africa who try to reach the Spanish Canary Islands in often flimsy boats. They seek to escape poverty and find better lives in Europe.

More than 30,000 illegal migrants came ashore last year in the Spanish Canary Islands after making long, risky voyages in open boats from the Atlantic coast of West Africa.

The migrants on the Esperanza del Mar, most of whom were reported to come from Senegal, included seven people with serious injuries, the diplomats said.

Desperate after days at sea and following the deaths of several of their number, the group had stormed on to the Spanish fishing vessel Segundo San Rafael on Monday after it went to the aid of their stricken wooden boat off Mauritania.

''When the crew put down the ladder to hand them food and water, they started clambering up. There was panic, some were in a real state. Some fell back onto their wooden boat, fracturing arms and legs,'' said Serafin Fernandez, director of the Senegalese subsidiary of the Spanish fishing company Eduardo Vieira, which operates the Segundo San Rafael.

BODIES THROWN OVERBOARD Fernandez said the rescued migrants told the Spanish fishermen they had earlier in the voyage thrown overboard the bodies of 11 passengers who had died. The Spaniards found another body aboard the open boat and one of those ill had died aboard the hospital ship.

''The majority of the migrants are Senegalese,'' Fernandez said, citing testimony from the Segundo San Rafael's captain.

The migrants were later transferred to the Spanish government hospital ship.

Spain had initially asked Mauritania to allow the migrants to disembark on its territory -- the nearest landfall -- on humanitarian grounds, but the Mauritanian authorities refused.

Since the rescue took place in a maritime rescue area that falls under Senegal's jurisdiction, Madrid then asked the Senegalese government to allow the migrants ashore.

Spain has offered to help bear the costs of the disembarkation and medical care of the migrants, as well as their eventual repatriation to their home countries with the cooperation of the International Organisation for Migration.

Madrid has launched a diplomatic offensive in West Africa to try to halt the influx and is offering countries in the region increased aid in return for help to halt clandestine migration.

Reuters RS GC2112