26th September 2023
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Migrants cross Strait of Gibraltar on lorry tyre

Two young migrants were on Saturday rescued off Spain after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar on a lorry tyre, the Spanish coastguard said.

The pair were saved following ‘a call from Morocco to the Spanish sea rescue centre warning that two minors were floating on a lorry tyre in the Bay of Algeciras’, a coastguard spokesman said.

Inflatable boat
Rests of an inflatable boat on a beach in Barbate, used by migrants on 26 November 2018. The onset of autumn-winter has not stopped migrants from crossing the Mediterranean from Morocco to Spain. (Jorge Guerrero / AFP)

‘We mobilised a rescue vessel and warned all the boats in the area. A ferry called us to say that they had spotted them,’ he added.

ALSO READ: Focus – bad weather no deterrent to migrants crossing Strait of Gibraltar

The migrants, whose age or nationality were not known, were taken to the Port of Algeciras.

Increasing numbers of Moroccans and sub-Saharan migrants have been seeking to enter Spain, either by sea or by smuggling themselves into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which are in Morocco and the only European territories in Africa.

ALSO READ: Migrants who stormed border sent back

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says that some 51,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea this year, and that over 743 have died or gone missing trying.

 

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