Coastguard rescues 130 migrants on dinghies in one day
Coastguard rescues 130 migrants on dinghies in one day
RED Cross and Coastguard workers rescued a total of 130 would-be migrants entering Spain's Mediterranean shores on Sunday alone.
Jerry-built, overcrowded dinghies were spotted near Alborán Island, exactly halfway between Morocco and Almería, whilst others were rescued off the shores of Carboneras (Almería province), Cartagena (Murcia Region), and near Tabarca Island, directly east of the city of Alicante.
In the latter case, 10 migrants were spotted some nine miles off the island's coast at 17.15hrs, all of whom were said to be adult men of Algerian nationality and who claimed another 12 were on their way in a boat behind them.
The 10 were taken to the port of Alicante and given warm, dry clothing, fluids and food, and checked out by first-aiders.
Coastguard authorities were tipped off in the early hours of Sunday about a craft on its way north from the Moroccan city of Nador, and they were found 21 miles off the shores of Alborán Island.
A total of 34 of them - including six women and a child - were packed onto one motorboat.
Not far behind them, a boat carrying 25 Algerians was traced 50 miles south of Alborán Island at around 05.00hrs on Sunday.
Some time around noon, a craft carrying 30 sub-Saharan Africans, including three women and two babies under a year old, was spotted 60 miles south of Cartagena (Murcia).
The occupants were taken to the port of Cartagena for first aid, blankets, food and drink.
All 130 found in one day were said to be in good health, and are mostly of north African origin, although a handful are from sub-Saharan Africa.
But just a few hundred miles further east, others who had attempted the crossing were not so lucky.
The bodies of five migrants were found in the Sicilian Channel, the part of the Mediterranean which separates the Italian island from Libya.
One of them was dead on board a boat carrying some 600 migrants, and the remaining four had drowned as they did not know how to swim.
Others, who were unconscious in the water as they could not swim either were given CPR and successfully revived before being taken to hospital.
A total of 1,104 migrants were rescued in the Sicilian Channel on Sunday by Italian authorities.
And the day before, another 935 made it to dry land in Italy, whilst 3,400 were rescued in the Sicily area on Friday.
