Canaries-bound migrants throw bodies into sea

MADRID, August 20 (Reuters) A group of 15 starving African migrants found drifting in an open boat with a dead body off the Canary Islands have told how 11 other passengers died and were thrown overboard.

The group were attempting to travel hundreds of miles from the African coast in the hope of finding work in Europe.

Two of those tipped into the Atlantic were minors who died of exposure and lack of food, an official from the Canary Islands told Spanish national radio today, after talking to the survivors.

They were rescued from their drifting wooden boat yesterday, said Fran Torres, the islands' head of Civil Defence.

Seven of the survivors are in hospital for dehydration, hypothermia or fever.

''The migrants themselves told us that they had been drifting for six or seven days, that they didn't have anything to eat during that time, and that they had to throw nine adults and two minors overboard,'' Torres said.

''They got rid of the bodies,'' he said.

More than 30,000 Africans arrived in the Canaries last year after perilous boat trips from different parts of West Africa, and a large number are believed to have died in the attempt.

Illegal immigration became one of Spain's biggest political issues. Arrivals have more than halved this year following increased controls and a government promise to deport all illegal arrivals.

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