bild
epa00843936 Two out of six border guards from Italy look closely at their control screens watching over the Senegalese coast from an aircraft to prevent illegal migrants to reach the Spanish Canary Islands, between 60 and 250 miles (some 100-400 kms) from the African coast, off Dakar, Senegal, Wednesday 18 October 2006. The European Union's border control agency Frontex launched an operation last month to turn back small boats carrying migrants from Senegal, Cape Verde and Mauritania to the archipelago. The Italian plane, along with a patrol boat, a Spanish police helicopter, Senegalese boats and a plane are on patrol each day since the Islands became the preferred route for clandestine African migrants. More than half of the 26,000 people who have reached the Canary Islands this year came from Senegal, causing the Spain's worst humanitarian crisis since the civil war of the 1930s. Madrid said the operation is not big enough, despite 15 special flights landing each week on the airport of the northern city of Saint-Louis, Senegal. Spain signed a co-operation deal in October that will give Senegal up to 15million euros ($ US18.8 million) of aid annually over five years. EPA/PIERRE HOLTZ