By Tito Drago
MADRID, Sep 16 1997 (IPS)

Six would-be immigrants from North Africa drowned off the coast of Spain Tuesday and more than 20 are still missing after the “duckboat” in which they were travelling shipwrecked off the Strait of Gibraltar.

Six survivors who made it to the coast or were picked up by the Coast Guard said there were 30 other undocumented people in the boat, all of whom were heading for Europe in search of work.

The “duckboats”, which are designed for use by duck-hunters in shallow lakes, are used to transport aspiring immigrants because they can navigate in shallow waters and thus escape Coast Guard vessels.

The shipwreck occurred near Tarifa, an area on the Spanish coast whose strong winds draw surfers from all over Europe.

The immigrants are usually young North Africans who save for months to pay organisations described by Spanish authorities as “mafias” for taking them across the Mediterranean sea in one of two ways.

The first is by sea in “duckboats”, whose owners usually make the passengers jump into the water near the coast without even landing. Police occasionally find unidentified corpses of drowning victims, because the boat owners do not make sure the immigrants know how to swim before forcing them to jump out.

The second system entails false floors or ceilings in vans and trucks, which cross the sea in ferries and drop the immigrants off somewhere in Spain’s interior. In July more than 20 undocumented North Africans hidden in a truck were killed when the vehicle overturned.

The immigrants – dubbed “tunas” by the traffickers – pay from 600 to 800 dollars for the crossing. Once they reach dry land, they generally head to the house of a relative, acquaintance or “friend of a friend.”

One of every three who set out across the Mediterranean make it into Europe. The rest drown or die in traffic accidents or are caught by security forces, either on land trying to find their way to a contact point, or at sea when the “duckboats” are captured.

Crossing the strait is dangerous, but North Africans are “more afraid of hunger than the duckboat,” says Spanish journalist Ildefonso Olmedo – alluding to the social situation in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

Spain has closed its borders in accordance with European Union agreements that demand strict immigration controls. With the quota limited to 25,000 entry permits a year, aspiring immigrants have increasingly turned to illegal channels.

In early August, more than 15 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) sent a letter to Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja, denouncing the expulsion of Algerians residing in several Spanish cities. The NGOs were protesting a discriminatory policy which they said violated rights due to the grave situation currently gripping Algeria.

Their campaign is based on a survey conducted by the Opina Institute for the Barcelona daily ‘La Vanguardia’.

According to Opina, 76.8 percent of Spanish citizens surveyed believe foreign nationals take jobs that no European wants. Furthermore, 74.5 percent said they were in favour of immigration, because solidarity was one of society’s most important values – a position rejected by only 18 percent.

Asking those interviewed to rank their preferences on a scale of one to ten, European immigrants were ranked 7.4, South Americans 7.0, Asians 6.7, black Africans 6.6, U.S. citizens 6.2 and Arabs 6.0 – all considered “passing grades” by the Opina Institute.

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