Spanish police have arrested the suspected organizer of a ring smuggling migrants from Western Sahara to the Canary Islands and the captain of a trafficking boat from among a group of migrants recently arrived in the islands.
The 40-year-old Senegalese man was part of a trafficking organization based in Laayoune in the disputed territory of Western Sahara that chartered boats to take migrants to the Spanish islands, which lie off the coast, police said.
Migrant arrivals in the Canary Islands, which peaked at 32,000 in 2006, have fallen sharply due to stronger interception measures and Spanish return agreements with Mauritania and Senegal, but some migrants still attempt the voyage.