A DISPUTE broke out in Spain yesterday after it emerged that police diverted patrol boats to escort multimillion-pound yachts preparing for the America’s Cup when the Civil Guard was struggling to contain record numbers of illegal immigrants trying to reach the Canary Islands by sea. Seventeen Civil Guard patrol vessels flanked yachts off the coast of Valencia, where the competition will be held next year.

This left their colleagues in the Canary Islands with only eight boats to patrol the seas as 647 illegal immigrants in nine tiny boats arrived in one day in Tenerife, La Gomera, El Hierro and Grand Canary.

The United Civil Guard Association condemned the “enormous waste” of resources while Spain was faced with an “avalanche” of illegal immigrants, mainly from Mauritania and Senegal. Authorities in the Canary Islands have struggled to cope with the arrival of 6,900 immigrants so far this year, compared with the 4,751 who were arrested last year.

Immigrants are being held in prison cells and garages because holding centres are full. Joan Miquel Pepigná, a Civil Guard spokesman, said: “We have had to get staff from all over Spain and two of our patrol boats are being repaired. We cannot cope as it is. We have to rescue them (illegal immigrants) and act almost as a welcoming committee.”

The Spanish Government is to send ten diplomats to Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia, Guinea, Niger and Senegal, where many immigrants start their long journeys. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, has written to the heads of government in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Mali to ask for help in stopping more immigrants arriving on Spanish beaches.

But Carlos González Segura, the head of the Canary Islands regional government, asserted that the situation was out of control. “This is madness,” he said. “With this spate of arrivals we will have no space left within three days.”

With feelings running high on the islands, Spaniards have become concerned about the possible impact on the tourist industry, on which the local economy depends. Residents of the town of Arona, in Tenerife, attacked immigration holding centres with petrol bombs after rumours spread that the arrivals were infected with yellow fever.

Antonio Morales, the head of the tourist unit of the local police, said: “In six months people have gone from feeling sympathetic towards them to being angry.”

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