Spain: Boat migrants die, bodies cast into sea

(CNN) -- The Spanish Interior Ministry says the death toll among migrants found packed aboard a boat trying to reach one of Spain's Canary Islands has risen to at least six.

The boat was spotted off the island of La Gomera with 59 persons from sub-Saharan Africa crumpled into its narrow hull. Four of them were dead.

Harrowing pictures from the scene show people piled on top of each other in an unfeasibly small space.

An Interior Ministry spokeswoman said Saturday that one other person died on arrival at the port of Playa de Santiago on Friday. Four seriously ill people were transferred by helicopter to hospitals on the island of Tenerife where one of them died.

National broadcaster RNE said survivors had acknowledged throwing bodies overboard after they got lost at sea.

Earlier this week the Spanish coastguard rescued 23 Nigerian immigrants off the coast near Malaga but 14 others could not be found.

Thousands of Africans are believed to have died attempting sea crossings to Spain in recent years, most of them trying to reach the Canary Islands in search of jobs.

The flood of migrants has prompted Spain's Socialist government to toughen up its policies on illegal immigrants, who now face repatriation to their home countries.

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