Spain rescues 141 migrants at sea in one day

A total of 141 migrants from the sub- Sahara region were rescued at sea Saturday between Spain and Morocco, from a variety of makeshift vessels, the Spanish maritime rescue service said.

Two boats carrying 86 people, one of which was already beginning to sink,
were recovered in the Alboran Sea, the stretch of the Mediterranean between
the two countries, a spokesman for the service told AFP.

Some of the people were already in the water by the time the rescuers
arrived, but everyone was rescued, he said, adding that among the 86 were 14
women and three children.

Further west, in the Straits of Gibraltar, rescue boats picked up three
men in a kayak, and another 52 people — including 14 women — in a dinghy.

Around 11,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea since the beginning of
the year and 203 people have died attempting the crossing from north Africa,
according to the latest figures from the International Organization for
Migration (IOM), issued on Wednesday.

Over the same period in the Mediterranean as a whole, 682 have died or are
missing attempting the crossing from northern Africa, while 31,600 migrants
have made it to Europe, according to the IOM.