patera

f.

1 small boat, dinghy.

2 duck house.

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patera

► nombre femenino

1 boat

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SF Esp boat, small boat ( often used for illegal immigration )

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femenino (Esp) open boat (used by illegal immigrants to cross the Strait of Gibraltar)

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* emigrantes que huyen de su país en barca o patera = boat people.

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femenino (Esp) open boat (used by illegal immigrants to cross the Strait of Gibraltar)

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* emigrantes que huyen de su país en barca o patera = boat people.

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patera

feminine

patera (↑ patera a1)

1 (en la caza de patos) punt

2 (Esp) (de inmigrantes ilegales) open boat (used by illegal immigrants to cross the Strait of Gibraltar)

CULTURAL NOTE

patera

A boat with a shallow draft, used by illegal immigrants, known as balseros, to cross the Straits of Gibraltar from Morocco to southern Spain.

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patera nf

1. [barca] small boat, dinghy

2. ver patero

PATERA

Both legal and illegal immigration into Spain have risen dramatically in recent years, as economic development attracts those from countries with limited job opportunities, especially in North Africa, Eastern Europe and South America. For a number of years many would-be immigrants from Africa have crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in small boats which can barely sustain their weight, and which the Spanish press refer to as pateras, a term rarely used before but now automatically associated with the idea of illegal immigration. Because of the increasingly sophisticated technology used to police the Straits in the 1990s, the crossing from Morocco to the Canaries was much used in the 1990s. As that route in its turn became more heavily patrolled, Mauretania has become a common point of departure for those heading for the Canaries. As the distance to be covered by the overloaded craft increases, so does the risk, but even the rising death toll shows no sign of reducing the numbers prepared to make such voyages.

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patera

f small boat