GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) – Police said yesterday they would contact family members of four Africans who plan to ask for asylum in the South American country of Guyana to verify their story that their boat broke down on the way to the Caribbean from the Cape Verde islands off West Africa.

Police planned to hire a French-speaking interpreter to make contact with relatives, said Deputy Police Commissioner Henry Greene.

Fishermen rescued the four October 24 while their 12-foot (four-metre) sail-and-motor boat was adrift off Guyana’s coast.

The young men said they had left Cape Verde and hoped to reach the French island of Martinique, a month-long, more than 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometre) voyage across the Atlantic.

Greene said police had investigated the vessel and determined that it was in disrepair. Police were also checking to see whether it had been stolen, Greene said.

Many questions remained about the voyage described by the men and their reasons for requesting asylum.

They men have been in jail nearly a week since being arrested on charges of entering Guyana illegally, their lawyer Mortimer Codette said.

The fishermen had brought them to shore and introduced the men to fellow Muslims who allowed them to stay in their homes. The four were detained when they went to immigration police to request permission to stay.

Codette said the four included Abdul Karim, 23, from Senegal; Mamoud Ba, 23, from Guinea-Bissau; Gabriel Camaro, 22, from Gambia; and Joao Manuel Lopez, 23, from Cape Verde. He said all except Lopez said they were orphans.

The men appeared healthy, were well-dressed, and had euros when they were rescued at sea, Codette said. Police seized the men’s boat, which was brought to shore.

In court Thursday, the four pleaded innocent to charges of entering the country illegally.

They are to be tried next Thursday. If they are found guilty, the men could be fined and deported.

Codette said he plans to file an asylum claim next week. He said the men “said they were so well treated that they now want to stay here.”