Spain rescues 24 immigrants in small boat including three dead

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One of the corpses. EFE

Spanish rescue vessels intercepted a boat off the Canary Islands carrying would-be immigrants, three of whom were dead, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.

The three bodies were taken on to one Maritime Rescue Service vessel, and 21 survivors were transferred onto another, said a ministry spokesman whose post forbids him to be publicly identified. Both boats were expected to arrive at the Tenerife island port of Los Cristianos later Thursday.

The migrants' boat was discovered about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of the Spanish archipelago, close to the northwest African coast. The nationalities of the people in the boat was not immediately known, the spokesman said.

More than 30,000 immigrants, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, were intercepted while trying to reach the Canary Islands last year, after sailing from west Africa in crowded boats.

Senegal and Mauritania are both launching points for the thousands of migrants, who often end up being held in overflowing holding centers in the Canary Islands.

The European Union has begun patrolling waters along the Africa coast in an effort to stem illegal immigration.