MEXICO CITY, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Guatemalan officials detained 56 undocumented immigrants picked up from a stricken ship in Guatemalan waters, an official source from the Guatemalan General Direction of Migration said Monday.

    According to information reaching here from Guatemala City, the immigrants were rescued Sunday by U.S. coastguards as their small ship was about to sink.

    The immigrants were taken to Quetzal port in the south of Guatemala, a spokesman from the Guatemalan General Direction of Migration said.

    The spokesman added that there were 20 women, 30 men and six children aboard, supposedly from Ecuador, who were trying to pass secretly into the U.S.

    Since being detained they have received medical care, and have been taken to a shelter in Guatemala city while they await repatriation.