(AP) A boatload of 52 dazed and exhausted African men arrived here Tuesday, the latest of a stream of desperate migrants risking everything on the open sea for a slim chance at life in Europe.

Police Tuesday found two other boats of north Africans _ one carrying 36 off the southeastern coast of the Spanish mainland, and one with 29 off the city of Motril on the southern coast.

Since Sunday, Spanish authorities say 196 Africans in five boats have been intercepted.

The boat containing the 52 Africans was tugged into the port of this resort town after Spanish maritime rescue services were alerted by a fisherman. They docked within view of tourists sunbathing in bikinis or sipping coffee or beer in seaside cafes.

Relief workers gave the Africans hot drinks and cookies as they started the process of trying to identify and repatriate men who completed a trip that the Mauritanian Red Crescent says has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 others since the beginning of the year.

"Once they get here they are grateful for anything they can get," said Austin Taylor, a Red Cross official.

The Africans wore yellow rain coats provided by relief officials, or the same tattered winter clothes they donned for their chilly, wind-swept journey from northwest Africa. Some were barefoot as they were led off the boat. But they traveled with a Global Positioning System navigating device, officials said.

The group probably set out from Mauritania _ the most popular new departure point for African boat people trying to reach Spain _ and may have spent four or five days on the open sea, perhaps without sleeping, said Taylor.

A similar boat carrying 44 Africans were intercepted Monday and brought to Los Cristianos, and on Sunday 35 more Africans were rescued as they sailed toward Hierro, another of the Canary Islands.

Officials in the Canary Islands say they are alarmed by a dramatic rise in the number of Africans trying to reach the archipelago _ 3,000 in the first three months of the year, compared to roughly the same amount for all of 2005.

On March 14, 331 arrived in eight boats, threatening to overwhelm local authorities' capacity to house and care for them.

Los Cristianos Police Chief Luis Carrion said Africans such as those who arrived Tuesday "have overcome a tremendous danger. For them, arriving here is quite a success."

But the Africans are worried because they don't know what will happen now, he added. If they come from a country with which Spain has an automatic repatriation accord, such as Mali or Senegal, they can be sent back home in the next 40 days.

If their country lacks such an accord, they will probably be allowed to stay in Spain but have virtually no chance of getting residency or work papers, and can eventually end up on the street, either in the Canary Islands or the Spanish mainland.

For decades, immigrant boats have set out from Morocco, sailing north across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Spanish mainland or westward to the Canary Islands, one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations, off the coast of northwest Africa.

But a crackdown by Moroccan authorities has turned Mauritania, just south of the Western Sahara, into the new magnet for Africans trying to reach Spain.

On Sunday, more than 30 would-be migrants are believed to have died after their boat collided with a fishing vessel as it set out from Mauritania, authorities said.