AP News, February 12th, 2007
A boat carrying 400 illegal migrants was finally allowed to dock in Mauritania on Monday, after being stranded for 10 days in international waters off the northwest African country's coast.
The wooden boat, known as the "Marin 1," came ashore at the fishing port of Nouadhibou, 290 miles north of the capital of Nouakchott, said Mohamed Yahya Ould Mohamed Vall, the governor of Nouadhibou.
The migrants are Africans and Asians, including a large number of immigrants from Pakistan, officials said.
As the boat landed, six people were evacuated to hospitals by the local Red Cross. Vall said there were several "serious cases of dysentery and dehydration."
The sick are the only passengers who will be allowed to stay in the town, he said.
"Only the sick who require hospitalization will be allowed to stay at Nouadhibou and after they get well, they will be sent to Spain and out of Mauritania to their country of origin," Vall said.
The vessel had spent more than 10 days at sea off the coast off the African coast as Spanish and Mauritanian officials argued about what government should take them in.
Mauritania eventually agreed to let the rusty, broken down vessel dock and allow its occupants ashore, on the condition that Spain would supply medical facilities and planes to fly them out.
The boat is believed to have departed from further south on the West African coast en route to Spain's Canary Islands, but ran into mechanical trouble before being intercepted by Spanish officials.
