By Pap Saine

BANJUL, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Gambia sent back a plane carrying 103 illegal migrants repatriated by Spain because the Spanish government did not give it enough time to prepare to receive them properly, Gambian officials said on Saturday.

The Spanish plane carrying the Gambians, who were being repatriated under an existing immigration accord between Madrid and the tiny West African state, was forced to return to Spain on Friday after spending several hours at Banjul airport.

"The Gambian authorities were not ready to receive the migrants in that short time," Gambia's ambassador to Spain, Kebba Touray, told Reuters by telephone from Madrid.

He said these procedural problems, mainly the "short notice" given by the Spanish authorities, had prevented Gambia from accepting the returned illegal migrants on Friday.

But the ambassador added the two governments were consulting to agree a new date "in the near future" for the 103 migrants to be sent home to Gambia.

Spain's El Mundo newspaper said Spanish officials expressed surprise at Friday's incident, because, it quoted them saying, Gambia had previously agreed to accept the repatriation flight.

Gambia, a former British colony whose slim sliver of territory juts into French-speaking Senegal, is one of a string of West African states which have signed immigration accords with Spain allowing the repatriation of illegal migrants.

In exchange, Spain, which is in the front line of European Union efforts to stem a tide of illegal African job-seekers trying to reach Europe to seek a better life, has pledged development aid to the West African governments.

Madrid repatriated several thousand illegal West African migrants last year, but these flights remain sensitive. The returning migrants are escorted by police to prevent fights and protests, which sometimes break out when the migrants get home.

Touray said the returning Gambians "needed to have a medical doctor to check them, security to scrutinise and interview them, and those who live up country needed to have accommodation for one or two days in Banjul before they went back to their homes."

"All this cannot be done at short notice," he said.

As part of the migration accords, European Union planes and warships have been patrolling off the coast of West Africa to intercept the illegal migrants who try to reach European shores in flimsy, open boats. Hundreds drown in the risky voyages. (Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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