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Spanish rescue services save further 200 immigrants from sea

Xinhua, October 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Spanish Maritime Rescue services confirmed that they rescued around 200 immigrants and took them to ports in Spain late on Saturday.

The new came barely two days after the vessel "Rio Segura" saved the lives of 1,258 immigrants in the largest rescue Spanish Maritime rescue services have ever made in the Mediterranean Sea.

Saturday saw the 200 immigrants lifted off seven different dinghies from different points off the coast of Spain.

Some 53 people, all from the Maghreb, were lifted off a boat which was approaching the coast of Murcia (south-east Spain) and taken to the port of Cartagena.

Meanwhile, other operations took place in the Sea of Alboran, which is an area of the Mediterranean midway between the south coast of Spain and the north coast of Africa.

Another 56 immigrants, six of whom were children under four years old, were taken from one dinghy in that area, while a further 32, including 17 women, were saved close to the Island of Alboran after rescue services received a call from an aid worker alerting of their departure from the North-African coast.

In a different operation, some 15 more immigrants were rescued from a dinghy 16 miles off the coast of the Spanish port of Almeria before being taken into the port for medical treatment and subsequently being turned over to the Spanish police.

The current high numbers of immigrants making the crossing is a result of the exceptionally calm weather experienced in the Western Mediterranean at the start of October giving good conditions to make the hazardous voyage.

The UN Refugee Agency said that the first five months of 2016 saw 2,510 people lose their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. Endit