Coastguard rescues 484 migrants in one day off Andalucía shores
Wednesday, July 25, 2018 @ 8:52 PM
COASTGUARD officials in Andalucía have rescued 484 migrants in just one day as they attempted to cross the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alborán Sea on jerry-built rafts.
A total of 27 overcrowded toy boats carrying 334 migrants, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, were intercepted off the coast of the province of Cádiz yesterday (Tuesday), and their occupants – who have all survived – were taken to Barbate, Tarifa and Algeciras.
Due to lack of space, with dozens or even hundreds of migrants arriving by the day, about 200 of them had to spend the night on a lifeboat and othes were taken to the Andrés Mateo sports centre in Algeciras' El Saladillo neighbourhood.
Those given beds in the leisure centre were 'priority' cases, such as children and pregnant women.
Another boat carrying 35 sub-Saharan Africans, two of whom are women, also reached Spain safely yesterday after they were spotted by emergency services near Alborán Island, about halfway between the province of Almería and the Spanish-owned enclave of Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com