More than 250 refugees and migrants, who tried to cross the sea area between Morocco and Spain, having boarded five makeshift boats, were rescued yesterday by the competent Spanish authorities, the Public Authority for Maritime Safety became aware.
"We rescued 251 people from five makeshift boats, all sailing in the Alboran Sea," authorities confirmed on Twitter.
Among those rescued were women and children, a spokesman for the Maritime Safety Authority said without elaborating. As of January, 15.428 refugees and migrants have arrived in Spain by sea and 155 have died during the voyage, according to the latest November 6 report released by the International Organization for Migration. The IOM also estimates that a total of 2.925 refugees and migrants have lost their lives across the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year.
According to the report, published on the IOM website, 154.609 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe by sea since January.