Rescue teams recover 20 bodies from shipwreck

Rescue teams have recovered the bodies of 20 people off southern Spain following a shipwreck involving would-be immigrants last weekend, officials said.

Recovery teams, hampered by heavy rains and rough seas, found 15 bodies yesterday.

They recovered six drowned men near the breakwater of a naval base near the town of Rota.

Another seven were found along the sandy coastline east of Rota, and two more were recovered late in the day, a spokesman for Rota’s Civil Protection unit said.

All bodies retrieved were North African men, he said.

They were believed to belong to a boatload of would-be immigrants whose boat was sighted in rough seas and stormy weather in the bay of Cadiz on October 25, Spanish national news agency Efe said.

Earlier in the week, rescue workers had retrieved five bodies from the coastline.

Survivors of the shipwreck taken to a hospital said the boat carried up to 50 passengers, officials said, adding that it is possible more bodies will be found.

Thousands of people seeking to flee poverty in Africa try to enter Europe clandestinely from Morocco through Spain every year.

Most try to make it in rubber boats, either crossing the treacherous Strait of Gibraltar or making the lengthy voyage west to Spain’s Canary Islands. Many drown in the attempt.