Spanish hunt for African illegals

TARIFA (Reuter) - Civil guards yesterday detained 43 Africans trying to enter Spain illegally and were hunting about 50 others who evaded capture on a beach near the country's southernmost tip, local government officials said. The would-be immigrants were spotted coming ashore from five small boats about two miles east of Tarifa, mainland Spain's southernmost town. Civil guardsmen swooped on the group but about 50 Africans scattered across a hillside behind the beach before they could be rounded up, officials said. The 43 caught were being held in the port of Algeciras pending deportation.

A flood of illegal immigrants, almost all North Africans and most of them Moroccans, have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco in recent weeks.