MADRID, Spain (AP) - A raft carrying 42 destitute Africans - bundled up for a chilly, wind-swept crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar - washed up on a nudist beach in southern Spain, officials said Monday.
Spanish television broadcast amateur video footage of surprised bathers at the Sunday landing at sun-splashed Canos de Meca beach in Cadiz province.
The migrants included four babies, including one just 11 days old. A group of bathers was shown gathered around one of the infants, gently counting the fingers on one of its hands and coming up with six.
Bathers helped emergency medical crews carry some of the undocumented foreigners on stretchers to ambulances for treatment for dehydration, hypothermia and malnutrition.
Such arrivals are common in Spain, especially in summer, but usually take place under cover of night and not on a beach packed with weekend sunbathers.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/06/21/508773-ap.html
Spanish television broadcast amateur video footage of surprised bathers at the Sunday landing at sun-splashed Canos de Meca beach in Cadiz province.
The migrants included four babies, including one just 11 days old. A group of bathers was shown gathered around one of the infants, gently counting the fingers on one of its hands and coming up with six.
Bathers helped emergency medical crews carry some of the undocumented foreigners on stretchers to ambulances for treatment for dehydration, hypothermia and malnutrition.
Such arrivals are common in Spain, especially in summer, but usually take place under cover of night and not on a beach packed with weekend sunbathers.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/06/21/508773-ap.html