The Spanish coastguard rescued 299 people from 31 small boats in the
Strait of Gibraltar on Monday. All the men, women and children onboard were
found to be in apparent good health and taken to Tarifa, in Cádiz province, to
be treated.
The good weather in the Strait of Gibraltar over recent days has led
to a rise in the number of immigrants trying to enter Spain illegally by sea in
small inflatable dinghies. Such a huge influx coming across the Mediterranean has not been seen
since October 2010, when 300 migrants made it on to the shores of Andalusia,
Murcia, Ceuta and the Balearics in just one weekend.
According to Spanish Maritime Rescue, two of its ships intercepted
eight small boats trying to cross the Strait with 84 people aboard in the early
hours of Monday morning. Later two other ships and a Civil Guard patrol boat
rescued 15 other small vessels. In the afternoon further boats carrying
migrants were intercepted. Two other boats were taken back to Morocco.
