Spain rescues over 500 migrants in Mediterranean

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Europe

Spanish authorities rescued 532 migrants from more than a dozen boats attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea to Europe this weekend.

Eight small boats with 239 migrants were intercepted by rescue boats off Spain’s southern coast on Sunday, only a day after 293 migrants were pulled from nine vessels.

Three of the boats which were in a “poor state” sank right after the migrants were rescued.

The migrants were from various countries in North and sub-Saharan Africa.

A Spanish coast guard vessel. The number of migrants arrived in Spain is increasing significantly in recent years. /VCG Photo

Favorable weather in the Strait of Gibraltar is attracting more and more migrants to undertake the dangerous sea journey. Tens of thousands attempt to go to southern European countries including Spain by crossing the Mediterranean in smuggler boats.

However, most of the boats are unfit for open water and thousands of migrants drown every year.

Spain is the third busiest gateway for migrants arriving in Europe after Italy and Greece. But the number of migrants who want to go to Spain is increasing significantly in recent years, mainly because the tough measures to prevent migrants’ arrival in Italy.

Statistics show that more than 22,400 people arrived in Spain by sea last year, nearly triple the number for 2016 and some 223 people died along the way, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

More than 100 refugees were rescued in Mediterranean in early May this year. /VCG Photo

And Europe’s border agency Frontex said in January that, with the increase use of fast boats, more irregular migrants to Spain this year are expected.

As for the migrant issue, Austria’s chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Sunday that European border guards should be allowed to go to North Africa to prevent migrants from setting off across the Mediterranean Sea in rickety boats.

Kurz mentioned that a new mandate for EU border protection agency Frontex should allow it “to act in third countries, with the permission of their governments, to end smugglers’s dirty business model and prevent smugglers’ boats setting off on the dangerous route across the Mediterranean”.

(With input from agencies)