Senegal and Spain have on Saturday signed a joint declaration to extend the Frontex operation until 30 June 2008 in order to step up the crackdown on illegal emigration, APA learnt here.

Senegalese Interior Minister, Ousmane Ngom and his Spanish counterpart Alfredo Perez Rubalcalba, signed the document on Friday in Dakar, Senegal.
Ousmane Ngom recalled that in 2006 some 901vessels landed in Spain with 35, 488 illegal migrants on board from various African countries.
Thanks to the Frontex operation, he said, only 101 vessels carrying 4, 404 people docked to the Spanish coasts by 15 June 2007.

The Spanish Interior minister for his part hailed the results of the operation and urged for a permanent sharing of information on migration pattern between Madrid and Dakar.
Meanwhile, the Spanish government has granted 300 visas to young qualified Senegalese who will be flown this week to Madrid where they will be dispatch in several Spanish towns as a labour force.

The Spanish government has also promised to build professional schools in Senegal where youths could be fetched based on the labour need in Spain. The project is to begin soon according to the Spanish Minister of Interior Alfredo Perez Rubalcalba.