DAKAR/MADRID, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Spain has delivered six new multicopter drones to Senegal and plans to reinforce its deployed security personnel to help the West African nation tackle a migration crisis, Spain’s acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Monday.
Grande-Marlaska is in Senegal where he met his Senegalese counterpart, Sidiki Kaba, as the number of would-be migrants from West Africa, especially Senegal, to reach Spain’s Canary Islands this year is near a record high.
Grande-Marlaska said the drones delivered to the Senegal Police are designed to detect vessel departures so that they could be intercepted.
He added that Spain had also deployed a civil guard aircraft to help patrol the coasts of Senegal and Mauritania, in addition to 38 troops equipped with four boats, a helicopter, and 13 all-terrain vehicles that carry out joint patrol missions with Senegalese forces.
