Nearly 300 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were rescued at sea overnight between Spain and Morocco, while a woman was found dead on one of the four boats, Spain’s maritime rescue service said Wednesday.
The service saved 220 people, including 57 women and four minors, in the Alboran Sea, the stretch of the western Mediterranean between the two countries, a spokeswoman told AFP.
The woman’s body was found aboard one of the boats, she added. The cause of her death is unknown, she said.
Moroccan authorities meanwhile rescued another 57 migrants from another boat in the Alboran Sea, the spokeswoman said, without detailing their ages or gender.
Around 11,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea so far this year, and 203 have died attempting the crossing from North Africa, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration, issued on Wednesday.
Over the same period in the Mediterranean as a whole, 682 have died or are missing attempting the crossing, while 31,600 migrants have made it to Europe, according to the IOM.
Spain’s interior ministry says the number of migrant arrivals to the country has fallen by 30 percent so far this year compared with the same period in 2018.
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