BRUSSELS • Spain will ask the European Union yesterday for help in dealing with thousands of African migrants landing in the Canary Islands to seek work in Europe.

Some 7,400 migrants have arrived in the Canaries this year, five times more than in the same period last year, after Spain and Morocco blocked easier migration routes to mainland Europe.

Spanish officials said Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega would ask the EU for a package of aid including the deployment of a team of EU migration experts to advise its border guards on how to deal with the influx of migrants in often rickety fishing boats.

"The aim is to see exactly what means the EU can deploy," said one official, adding that de la Vega would also discuss Spanish proposals for new embassies in Mali, Sudan and Cabo Verde to channel aid and encourage migrants to stay at home.