Spain has called off an air and sea search for an estimated 50 Africans missing for two days after their crowded boat capsized in rough seas near the Canary Islands, officials said Saturday, according to AP. They called it one of the worst tragedies in recent years involving destitute Africans risking death to reach Europe's southern gateway in search of a better life. Planes stopped looking for the Africans on Friday evening, and two maritime rescue vessels were recalled on Saturday morning, said Salvador Garcia Llanos, a spokesman for the Spanish Interior Ministry office in the archipelago off the coast of northwest Africa. Authorities have activated a system of radio-equipped buoys that will alert ships in the area if people or bodies are detected in the water, he said. Garcia Llanos refused to give the Africans up for dead, although he acknowledged this was likely. He said many life vests were tossed into the water when the boat capsized and some of the migrants may still be alive. «It is very difficult for them to be alive, but we cannot rule it out,» he said in a telephone interview. The accident happened before dawn Thursday about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of the Canary Island of Tenerife when a large wave caused the boat to capsize just as a Spanish rescue vessel pulled up alongside it and prepared to take the Africans off it one by one. A total of 48 were rescued from the water, and three bodies have been recovered. Survivors have said they had been at sea between eight and 10 days.
