Mauritania ? A boat carrying Africans illegally trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands capsized off Mauritania’s coast, killing 30 people, an official said Monday.

Rescue workers were able to save 14 people from Saturday’s wreck several miles off the shore of this West African nation, said Madine Ba, the official in charge of maritime affairs in the northern city of Nouadhibou.

The Canary Islands are about 600 miles north of Nouadhibou in the Atlantic Ocean. Heavy winds were blowing Saturday in the area, Ba said.

African immigrants looking to enter Europe without proper documentation often seek to sneak into the Spanish islands or an enclave north across the Sahara Desert, in Morocco. Many die each year trying.