EU border agency starts sea patrols

The EU's border control agency – Frontex - is for the first time launching its own network of sea patrols to combat illegal immigration, saying its focus will be on the Spanish Canary Islands which alone saw at least 30,000 immigrants arriving by sea last year.

The creation of the European Patrols Network, a move decided by EU member states in December 2006 to reinforce the bloc's immigration policy, is the first attempt to jointly implement a system of monitoring the sea borders of the...