Canaries migrant death toll soars, BBC.
Africans are attempting risky sea journeys to reach Europe. About 6,000 African migrants have died or gone missing on the sea journey to the Canary Islands in 2006, Spanish immigration officials say.
They say more than 31,000 migrants reached the islands in the Atlantic - more than six times as many as in 2005. The coastguard intercepted fewer than 5,000 of them in small wooden - and often overcrowded - boats. The Canaries is one of the most popular destinations for Africans trying to reach Europe to escape poverty. "We're talking about a dramatic number of dead," Froilan Rodriguez, the Canary Islands' deputy director of immigration, told Spain's Cadena Ser radio station.
