Story By: Angjela Trajkovska, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/Guardia Civil
This is the moment Spanish cops intercept a makeshift canoe allegedly heading to the Canary Islands with 50 sub-Saharan Africans on board.
The Civil Guard in collaboration with the authorities from Mauritania, has prevented two makeshift rafts from travelling from the city of Nouadhibou in the state of Mauritania in western Africa to the Canary Islands in Spain, with a total of 92 people, all of them adult males except one minor.
The coastguard intercepted a canoe with 50 people with sub-Saharan origin in the waters of the Descanso bay. In the video, a helicopter and coast guard boat can be seen travelling towards the makeshift canoe.
The Maurtanian National Gendarmerie later intercepted on land, in the port of Bountilla (Nouadhibou), 42 people of sub-Saharan origin who were about to depart in another makeshift canoe.
All of the migrants in both incidents were reportedly destined for the Canary Island and came from Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and Guinea.
The action is part of the mechanism established by the members of the Civil Guard, Mauritanian Gendarmerie and the Mauritanian Coast Guards in Nouadhibou to deal with the rise in immigration from the city to the Canary archipelago.
The intercepted migrants have been reportedly handed over to the Mauritanian National Police for the corresponding immigration procedures.
One suspected organiser and the alleged owner of one of the canoes have been arrested, according to a Civil Guard press release.
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