Morocco holds 133 illegal migrants

RABAT, May 15 (Reuters) Moroccan authorities arrested 133 illegal migrants attempting to sail to Spain from Laayoune, the main town in Western Sahara, government officials said today.

The illegal migrants -- 30 of whom were detained on Saturday and 103 yesterday -- came from several sub-Saharan countries, they added.

The flow of illegal migration has shifted to the south since Morocco, under pressure from Spain, stepped up security measures to crack down on migration from northern Morocco since early in 2006, migrant rights activists said.

The arrested migrants are usually held at a detention camp before being sent back to their home countries, the activists said.

''Before the Moroccan crackdown in 2006, about 10 illegal migrants reached Western Sahara from Mauritania and Senegal and other sub-Sahara countries each month,'' said Abdallah Hirech, head of Sahara Migration and Development, a migrant advocacy group.

''We have about 250 migrant arrivals per month here in Western Sahara in 2006 and so far this year,'' he told Reuters.

REUTERS RJ HT1815