148 illegal immigrants reach Spain

The flimsy fiberglass vessel arrived at La Tejita beach on Tenerife's south coast around 6:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) as wind surfers were preparing to take to the sea, authorities said. The wind surfers and tourists alerted police.

The Africans tried to run inland, but were rounded up and detained, a ministry spokeswoman said. One man, who was dehydrated and had hypothermia, collapsed on the beach and was taken to a hospital. The rest were treated on the scene by Red Cross mobile units.

All the immigrants were males and at least six of them were minors, the spokeswoman told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in keeping with ministry rules.

Following identification at Las Americas port police station the immigrants were due to be held in Tenerife for 72 hours before being shipped to El Matorral detention center on the island of Fuerteventura where they would spend the next 40 days, the spokeswoman said.

Under current legislation illegal immigrants who are positively identified are sent back to their country of origin after a 40-day detention period.

This process is complicated if, as is likely, they destroyed or lost their identity documents before arrival in Spain.

If Spain is unable to prove the origin of people arriving illegally in the Canary Islands, it has little option but to fly them to the mainland where they are released to try and find work as "undocumented immigrants."

Thousands of sub-Saharan Africans try to reach the prosperity of Europe through the Canary Islands each year.

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