SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE (Spain), Sept 16: About 200 Pakistanis and Sri Lankans, the first people from Asia to reach the Canary Islands among a flood of recent immigrants, on Saturday faced expulsion from the island of Tenerife as Spain insisted they must go home.
Local authorities were processing the group after herding them onto buses and taking them to a reception area portside, and some of the crew faced police interrogation on suspicion of people-trafficking.
The illegal immigrants had arrived here on Friday.
Spanish First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the majority would be summarily sent home.
Spain’s interior ministry says more than 53,000 immigrants who tried unsuccessfully to reach the islands have been repatriated to Pakistan, Guinea Bissau, India, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal following a slew of bilateral accords.
According to El Pais newspaper, Pakistanis have been paying $500 to Senegalese traffickers after flying to Dakar in the hope of securing a sea passage to Greece.—AFP
