Thirteen Africans die in bid to reach Spain

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2004

FUERTEVENTURA, Spain (AFP) — Rescuers said they found 13 dead aboard a drifting immigrant boat carrying 43 Africans on a desperate attempt to reach Spanish territory.

They were part of a tide of Africans being shipped in leaky boats across the icy sea between the Gulf of Guinea and Spain's Canary archipelago by organized criminals operating out of West Africa, Spanish authorities say.

Civil guards said four people rescued from the boat were sent to hospital suffering severe heat loss. One of the survivors told an AFP photographer that the passengers had been half submerged in frigid water since shortly after the boat left an undisclosed location on the African coast on Monday.

Rescue services found the boat in the course of a search for another vessel that...