13 drowned illegal immigrants washed ashore

The bodies of 13 people who Spanish police suspect were Africans trying to get into Europe illegally washed up on Spain's southern coast yesterday.

Two or three of five women among them may have been pregnant, police told reporters on the rocky shore at Tarifa, a popular entry point for thousands of illegal immigrants.

A police helicopter on an early morning patrol of the narrow strait separating Spain from Morocco had earlier spotted people in a boat. Police speculated the skipper could have been an immigrant smuggler who then forced his charges into the water a short distance offshore in order to make his getaway.

"For the time being there are 13 Moroccan and sub-Saharan Africans... and we do not rule out finding more bodies," a police spokeswoman said.

The bodies were found along a deserted stretch of coast, about three kilometres from the nearest town. Spain's Interior Minister Angel Acebes said they were victims of mafia networks which traffic in humans.

Shortly after the bodies were found, police arrested eight Africans further along the Tarifa coast who may have been on the same boat as the 13 victims, the police said.

According to the Moroccan Workers' and Immigrants' Association in Spain (ATIME), some 4,000 people have died or disappeared since 1997 in the Strait of Gibraltar and in the Atlantic waters between Africa and Spain's Canary Islands.

Last year Spanish police intercepted around 18,000 immigrants trying to illegally enter Spain by sea and expelled, deported or refused entry to 44,800 immigrants without papers, according to official statistics.