Asian immigrants await expulsion on Canary Islands

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE/SPAIN: Two hundred Pakistanis and Sri Lankans, the first people from Asia to reach the Canary Islands among a flood of recent immigrants, on Saturday faced expulsion from the island of Tenerife as Spain insisted they must go home.

Local authorities were processing the group after herding them onto buses and taking them to a reception area portside, and some of the crew faced police interrogation on suspicion of people-trafficking.

No sooner had Spain repatriated a group of African immigrants than overwhelmed Canary Islanders had to deal yesterday with more illegal migrants in the shape of the Pakistanis and Sri Lankans.

But barely had they arrived than Spanish First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, promising Madrid would now get tough after a record 25,000 arrivals in the islands this year, promptly said the majority would be summarily sent home.

"We have begun making arrangements for the repatriation of the immigrants discovered last night in a boat a few miles off the Canaries," De la Vega said after yesterday's cabinet meeting.

"We will carry on determinedly working so that those who enter Spain leave immediately," she added, saying the issue was now firmly on the European agenda as the migrants' ultimate destination was not a Canary Islands beach but anywhere they could get to in Europe.