Spain offers Africa help if Africa takes back migrants

Photo: Spain offers Africa help if Africa takes back migrants

Miguel Angel Moratinos met with ministers from 10 west and central African countries from which thousands of migrants have traveled this year to the Canary Islands, triggering a humanitarian crisis that has prompted pledges of EU intervention.

Spanish authorities say the Canary Islands has intercepted more than 6,100 migrants since January, including more than 1,500 over the past two weeks. The tally is already well above the 4,751 caught in all of 2005.

More than 1,000 are believed to have died since late last year trying to make the long, perilous trip from Mauritania or other points on northwest Africa's coast in overcrowded boats.

Spain has automatic repatriation agreements with a handful of African countries, such as Morocco and Nigeria, which allow the Madrid government to send back people from those nations who travel here illegally.

But with most African countries Spain has no such arrangement, and cannot send home undocumented arrivals because the home governments don't take such people back.

Moratinos said Thursday Spain wants to sign package agreements calling for automatic repatriation, tempered with assistance to help African countries train and employ people and eliminate the need for them to seek a better life in Europe.

The ministers conferred with Moratinos on the sidelines of a two-day conference on helping them battle terrorism, the AP reports.

Moratinos said Spain wanted to help them break a "vicious circle of poverty, violence and political instability" through development, describing desperate people as fodder for terrorist recruiters.