Grim toll of African refugees in Spain

Three new tragedies have raised fears that this summer could see a record number of would-be migrants killed in desperate bids to reach Europe.

A series of tragedies involving migrants off the coast of Spain have raised fears that the summer could see a record-breaking death toll in the region, as refugees embark on increasingly perilous routes in smaller boats to avoid detection.

According to human rights agencies, there has been a sharp increase in the numbers of people attempting to make the sea crossing from North Africa to southern Europe, many of them from sub-Saharan conflict zones such as Eritrea and Somalia.

After a week of disasters and rescues at sea that has shocked Spaniards, authorities have identified the coastal port of Almería as the new favoured destination for human traffickers attempting to avoid increased police patrols and surveillance. A total of 51 migrant deaths at sea has been reported this year, but the actual mortality rate is certain to be far higher, since the bodies of many refugees are never recovered. The Red Cross estimates between 2,000 and 3,000 people die trying to reach Spain every year.

In the past few weeks there has also been a surge in the number of migrants landing on Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island - only 120 kilometres from the African coast. One official from UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, said that, since the start of the summer and the arrival of calmer seas, the number of arrivals on Lampedusa had doubled, and it is presumed that many more have been lost at sea.

The fate of the stream of refugees dominated Spanish media last week after a series of horrific episodes underlined the risks that migrants were prepared to take to reach Europe. One boat was spotted drifting off the port of Almería containing 33 survivors, weak with exhaustion. The group had set off a week earlier from the Moroccan port of Alhucema, but the boat's fragile motor broke down in rough seas. Fifteen of the boat's occupants, including nine children aged under four, had died from hunger or thirst during the journey. The bodies of the children, rotting in the sun, were thrown overboard by their parents. One Nigerian mother, whose two children died en route, repeatedly asked Red Cross workers in Almería: 'Where are my babies?'

The Spanish Prime Minister, José Zapatero, said the images of the stricken boat 'should be imprinted in the minds of each and every one of us'. Francisco Vicente, the head of the Red Cross in Almería, said: 'In five years, this is the worst I have ever seen.'
That tragedy was only one in a sequence of disasters. Last Monday, 14 Africans were declared missing, presumed dead, off Motril in Andalucía, after their boat capsized in rough seas. Crews pulled 23 people out of the water, including a pregnant woman. On Friday, a kayak with 59 migrants aboard, four of them dead, was intercepted off La Gomera in the Canary Islands. The kayak had drifted in the Mediterranean for two weeks after setting off from Guinea-Bissau. Ten more men were said to have died and been thrown overboard during the voyage; two more have since died in Spanish hospitals.

Police say African migrants pay on average £1,000 to trafficking gangs to reach the Moroccan coast. They are then packed into small boats, with poor satellite navigation systems and old motors.

Aid agencies claim that the recent crackdown on illegal immigration is worsening the crisis by encouraging migrants to make riskier and longer journeys. Angel Madero, president of the refugee aid group Acoge in Andalucía, said: 'They invest millions in security systems and the legal entry systems are more difficult. Necessity makes [migrants] carry on coming and the consequence is they take more dangerous routes.'