ROME - Almost 150 illegal migrants thought to be from east Africa have landed on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, authorities said on Thursday.
The group of 149 people, including seven women and two new borns, were thought to be from Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
They were transferred to a temporary shelter on the island, located halfway between Sicily and the north African coast.
Meanwhile further west 99 illegal migrants were intercepted on two boats in the Strait of Gibraltar as they approached the south coast of Spain near the town of Tarifa, Spanish police said Thursday.
Amongst them were four babies and two pregnant minors. Some 71 of them were from Morocco and the rest from Sub-Saharan Africa.
The boats were spotted by a 100 kilometres long (65 miles) radar system along Spain's south coast. The would-be immigrants were taken to the tiny nearby Island of Las Palomas to await repatriation.
Every year, thousands of illegal immigrants from north Africa and the Middle East try to enter the European Union via Italy's long coastline, the Canary Islands and the Strait of Gibraltar.
05/05/2005 13:15 GMT