Madrid - European Union sea patrols have helped to drastically reduce the numbers of would-be immigrants crossing from Africa to Spain's Canary Islands, a representative of the EU border patrol agency Frontex said Wednesday. For the first time, more migrants were being prevented from leaving Africa than were arriving in the Canaries, Frontex executive director Gil Arias said.
About 2,280 migrants have reached the Canaries so far this year, while 2,360 have been stopped in or off Africa. Nearly 8,000 migrants landed in the islands in 2008.
Arias praised the EU's cooperation with Senegal, from where only two migrant boats had taken off over the past nine months.
The number of illegals arriving in Spain by land and sea had gone down by more than half to about 7,000 so far in 2009, Arias said. Analysts attribute the decline also to Spain's economic crisis.
