Mafia gangs blamed for deaths of stowaways

A Cypriot cargo ship entered the southern Spanish port of Cadiz yesterday to offload two stowaways who had apparently suffocated in the hold while seeking a clandestine passage to Europe.

The episode came as Jose Maria Michavila, Spain's Justice Minister, announced tighter measures to keep illegal immigrants out of the country. These include 10-year prison terms for mafias who traffic in immigrants and expulsion without trial with banishment from Europe for 10 years for undocumented immigrants who commit petty crime. "We cannot have illegal immigrants who commit crimes walking our streets without being expelled," Mr Michavila said.

The Konstantinos tried to unload the casualties in Camer-oon, Ivory Coast and Liberia but all refused. Authorities in Cadiz agreed to accept the two African victims for burial in Spain and to run post-mortem examinations yesterday.

Ten days ago, seven dead Africans were washed up in Tarifa in southern Spain after their small makeshift boat was dashed against rocks after crossing the Gibraltar Strait. It was the third such shipwreck in four months. In August, 10 Africans drowned in similar circumstances and in October another 17 died. The vessels had escaped detection by the electronic vigilance system that monitors the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and Morocco because of mist.

But the operation of the €27.3m (£18m) detector system has deterred many would- be immigrants – or the mafia gangs who organise their perilous crossings – from attempting to cross the Strait.

Passages to the Canary Islands have boomed instead. Detentions of illegal immigrants there last year (9,756) outnumbered those detained around the Strait (6,748) for the first time, according to government figures. Meanwhile, in Spain's Moroccan enclave of Ceuta, an impromptu shanty town of Algerians and sub- Saharan Africans eager to head north has grown to 250. Fights break out every day.

In a brawl last week involving 40 men, five Africans were hurt and four North Africans were detained. Police have stepped up control of the camp.

Authorities in Ceuta have received 256 requests for asylum in three months; more than for the previous nine months. Police say mafia gangs encourage undocumented immigrants to apply for asylum, because they cannot be expelled while their applications are being considered.

The pressure group SOS Racismo condemned the government's plans yesterday as "repressive and demagogic" and designed with May's local elections in mind. Measures taken two years ago to build barriers against illegal immigrants have not deterred those determined to use flimsy boats, undersides of lorries or the sealed hold of a cargo ship.