Spain deluged by huge influx of immigrants

Spanish authorities picked up 37 illegal immigrants who landed on the Andalusian coast yesterday, bringing the number intercepted on the hazardous voyage from Africa to a record 325 within 24 hours.

Spanish authorities picked up 37 illegal immigrants who landed on the Andalusian coast yesterday, bringing the number intercepted on the hazardous voyage from Africa to a record 325 within 24 hours.

More than eight boat-loads - around 300 would-be immigrants - have come ashore since Sunday. Those picked up yesterday near the southern town of Tarifa included 28 Moroccans and nine from sub-Saharan Africa.

They were the latest of an unprecedented influx who seized the rare opportunity of calm waters in the treacherous Strait of Gibraltar to get to Europe. Some set out in motor-powered inflatable launches known as Zodiacs, others in pateras, rickety wooden fishing boats.

Among those who slumped trembling with cold and hunger on to Spanish beaches from Cadiz to Motril were 19 women and two children, including a baby of three months. Three of the women were pregnant and were taken to hospital. Two did not make the shore: the body of a man was picked up in Spain's southern port of Algeciras and that of a young Moroccan woman was found off Spain's Moroccan enclave of Ceuta.

The biggest embarkation, of 51 Moroccan men, landed in Tarifa near Algeciras early on Sunday morning. They were followed within hours by six boat-loads, each of between 30 and 50 would-be immigrants.

Yet another group of 15 clambered ashore at Tarifa undetected, but were stopped as they wandered along a motorway. A group of 36 whose overladen craft was on the point of sinking were rescued by a ferry crossing from Algeciras to Tangiers, helped by pleasure boats.

Another boat-load of 16 north Africans arrived on Sunday afternoon, hundreds of miles east, off Motril, near Granada, all suffering from sunstroke. One immigrant was picked up in Algeciras, where he had arrived hidden in a lorry. Several others were treated in hospital for hypothermia. The rest were taken into custody.

Desperate to find a foothold in Europe, most will be disappointed: Moroccans without papers were immediately sent back home, while most of those from central Africa are likely to be expelled within two weeks.

Unknown numbers of people fail to survive the currents of the Strait of Gibraltar, which is just over 10 miles wide but was described by an official yesterday as "a common grave".

A total of 12 immigrants have been found dead this year on the beaches of Ceuta, in the increasingly desperate attempts to head north. More than 1,600 have been intercepted so far this year, more than the total for the whole of last year.

The shipments are organised by Moroccan mafias who charge hundreds of dollars for the trip. Part of the money must be paid in advance, the rest on arrival. Some who manage to dodge the civil guard and settle in Spain are subsequently kidnapped and held by the gangs until what they still owe has been paid.

* An Italian police officer, a clandestine Kurdish immigrant and an Albanian people smuggler died yesterday when a smuggler's dinghy collided with a police vessel off Italy's southern coast. At least two people, a police officer and another Albanian smuggler, were missing. The motorised dinghy was dropping off several dozenKurds near Marina di Castro on the Adriatic Sea when it was spotted by a police boat. The smuggler rammed the pursuing boat, police said. The impact threw four police officers and the two Albanian smugglers into the water, along with some of the passengers.