EU patrols cut migrant arrivals: border agency

(WARSAW) - A two-month operation by European and African authorities has helped dramatically reduce the number of illegal immigrants arriving in Spain's Canary Islands, EU border agency Frontex said Thursday.

Some 585 immigrants have arrived on the islands since the ocean patrol operation, dubbed "Hera III", was launched on Feburary 12, Frontex said.

The figure compared with an average of 3,000 a month in the second half of 2006.

A total of 1,167 would-be migrants had been diverted back to their ports of departure on the West African coast after being intercepted by naval vessels and aircraft from France, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain, working hand in hand with Senegalese authorities.

Frontex said that the aim of the operation was "to stop migrants from leaving the shores on the long sea journey and thus reduce the danger of losses of human lives."

Some 50 boats carrying 4,000 would-be migrants were intercepted during earlier Frontex operations running from mid-August to mid-December last year.

But 15,000 people still made it to the Canaries over that period, a major sailing season.

"As our risk analysis shows, the migration flow towards the Canary Islands will remain one of the most-used routes of illegal migration to the European Union," said Frontex head Ilkka Laitinen in a statement.

"Therefore this route will stay in our focus and sequels of Hera III will be launched throughout the year," he said.

Warsaw-based Frontex went into operation in October 2005, with a brief to coordinate the efforts of individual member states to secure the external borders of what is now the 27-member EU.

The agency has been particularly active in the eastern Mediterranean and off the coast of West Africa, from where thousands of illegal migrants set sail each year on unseaworthy boats bound for the Canaries.

The islands are seen by many as a first entry point to the rest of the EU -- and to a better life away from the grinding poverty of Africa and other parts of the developing world.

The latest Hera operation has also given EU members a clearer picture of illegal migration and the routes used by people-smugglers, thanks to more than a hundred interviews with individuals who arrived in the Canaries, said Frontex.

The top three countries of origin were Senegal, Gambia and Ivory Coast, it said.