Spanish rescue teams on Monday said they had called off their search for over 20 migrants who fell off their boat into the Mediterranean on Friday.
The officials said that over 30 others, including a pregnant woman and eight children, were rescued after the vessel got into trouble south of Almeria.
However, the emergency crews carried on looking for the missing until Sunday night.
A Red Cross volunteer said that the migrants, travelling from Morocco, went overboard after the vessel’s engine cut out.
“The immigrants said there were big waves, the engine cut out, and people started getting restless, and that, as fights broke out, they fell into the water,’’ the volunteer said.
Report says tens of thousands of migrants make the dangerous journey from North Africa to Europe every year, often in crowded, unseaworthiness boats, while hundreds die in the attempt.
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