Senegalese fishing boats - or cayucos as they are called in Spain - have become the preferred method of transport for illegal immigrants trying to reach the Canary Islands.
The brightly painted wooden fishing boats are a colourful oddity in a harbour of yachts, ferries and trawlers.
They are often equipped with two or three 40 horsepower outboard motors. Barrels of fuel are packed beneath the deck, on which the passengers stand huddled together.
Messages of thanks and prayers asking God for a safe passage at sea are written on many of the boats.
The immigrants' families back home are said to scan newspapers for pictures of the distinctive boats to see if their loved ones have arrived safely.
The eight-to-10-day crossing is very risky - hundreds of migrants are believed to have died at sea. Some wear life jackets, which they leave in the boat on reaching land.
Once emptied of passengers, the fuel-soaked hulls reveal something of the journey - simple belongings and bits of food.
Having had so many people packed on board for such a long time, the boats are a health hazard.
The crossing is the last journey the boats will make. They are lifted from the quayside for crushing.
The wooden hulls are destroyed and the remains piled into skips and taken away.
It's too early to say whether the daily arrival of the migrant boats will damage the islands' tourist industry.
|
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~32~RS~)
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~32~RS~)
One-Minute World News
News services
E-mail this to a friend
