Spain's maritime rescue saves 339 migrants

The Spanish Maritime Rescue Service Wednesday saved 339 immigrants from rubber dinghies in which they were attempting to cross the Straits of Gibraltar that separates North Africa from the south of Spain.

The service informed that seven dinghies were intercepted, with the first rescue made in the early hours of Wednesday after the service had been informed that 139 people, including eight children and a baby, had been located in three separate dinghies that had set off from Morocco.

Thirty-nine people rescued on the first dinghy were described as men from the Maghreb region in good health.

The second rescue happened at around sunrise when a dinghy with 66 immigrants, including a woman and six children on board, was found. A third dinghy had 34 people on board, including 11 women, two children and a baby.

All of the migrants rescued were taken to Tarifa.

Four more dinghies in the region, three of which were transporting a total of 120 migrants, were rescued and the last vessel was rescued from an area approximately 11 miles off the Spanish coast. Fifty-four migrants were in this boat.

This busy day for the Maritime Rescue Services comes less than a week after the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that Spain was on the way to overtake Greece in the number of migrants arriving by sea in 2017. Around 8,200 people have crossed from North Africa to Spain between Jan. 1 and Aug. 6 this year.