Spain said on Wednesday it was restarting the repatriation of hundreds of illegal Senegalese migrants detained in the Spanish Canary Islands, a move which some have resisted with protests.
The fate of thousands of Africans who have come ashore in the Canaries this year has become a major political issue in Spain and Senegal. The two countries' governments have tried to keep the repatriation process secret to foil protests.
"We have started the repatriations to Senegal. Of course, this policy has to be very forthright and all illegal immigrants must know, and the mafias that traffic them, that whoever enters illegally has to go," Spanish Labour Minister Jesus Caldera told state radio in Madrid.
He offered no details but the operations centre at Dakar International Airport said an Air Europa charter was expected to arrive from Fuerteventura in the Spanish Canary Islands at 2335 GMT on Wednesday.
Diplomatic and security sources in the Senegalese capital confirmed that at least one flight from the Canaries carrying repatriated migrants would arrive late on Wednesday.
Senegal abruptly halted a previous repatriation process in late May, complaining its nationals were being mistreated. Around 24,000 illegal African immigrants have arrived in the Canaries in flimsy open boats this year in the hope of entering Europe, six times the number that arrived in the whole of 2005. Many die from hunger, thirst or exhaustion during the sea trip from the west coast of the world's poorest continent.
Senegalese Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom said on Tuesday his country would cooperate with Madrid in the repatriations as long as the "dignity and human rights" of its nationals were respected. "You can't just put them in a sack and take them back to Senegal," he told reporters.
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