Spain tells Senegal: 'We can take no more'

Spain told Senegal yesterday it could not absorb any more illegal migrants and called for a crackdown on people-smuggling "mafias" who were transporting thousands of Africans to its shores.

Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Bernardino Leon held urgent talks in Dakar with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom on moves to try to stem the exodus of migrants heading for Europe.

Inundated by a flood of young Africans, many from Senegal, coming ashore daily in rickety fishing boats in the Spanish Canary Islands, Madrid has called on African governments and its European partners to do more to help halt the influx.

Mr Leon said Spain's Socialist government had already taken the step of legalising the status of hundreds of thousands of foreigners who had been working illegally in the southern European nation for years.

"But the labour market has its limits... there are no more possibilities of absorbing a new wave of immigrants," Mr Leon said after meeting Mr Wade.

"Senegal's people and society must realise this," he told reporters, standing alongside Mr Ngom.

After months of diplomatic wrangling, Spain, Senegal and the European Union have started joint air and sea patrols off the Senegalese coast to try to intercept boats carrying migrants who have paid people-smuggling gangs or fishermen for their passage.

"Clearly, we need to reinforce the measures against these mafias, against this trafficking of people," Mr Leon said.

Asked whether Spain planned to shortly repatriate to Senegal hundreds of its nationals detained in the Canaries after arriving illegally, Mr Leon passed the question to Senegal's interior minister.

Mr Ngom said he would make an announcement in due course. The issue of repatriation is sensitive for both Senegal and Spain, where migration has become a highly charged political issue.

As the clandestine arrivals in the Canaries have reached record levels this year - around 24,000, five times the number recorded in all of last year - Spain's government has toughened its stance and now says all illegal immigrants will be sent home.

A previous attempt by Madrid to fly Senegalese illegal migrants home collapsed at the end of May after Dakar withdrew its agreement, saying its nationals were being mistreated on the repatriation flights. Spanish police denied this.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday her country would look for solutions to Spain's mounting problem with migrants when it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union next year.