Spanish coastguards rescued more than 200 migrants on Saturday as they attempted to make the perilous sea crossing from north Africa to Europe. A spokesman for Spain’s state maritime rescue service told AFP that 224 people had been rescued from five vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea, which separate Spain from … Read more
Spanish coast guards rescued more than 170 migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe from northern Africa in four separate boats, they said Saturday. Morocco notified Spain’s coast guards that a boat had been spotted trying to cross the Alboran Sea, the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean that ends with the Strait of Gibraltar before connecting … Read more
The Spanish outposts of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco, which have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa, are tempting launch pads for clandestine immigration to continental Europe. Ceuta, a former Roman colony of 85,000 people, measures about 18 square kilometres (seven square miles) and lies just across the Strait of Gibraltar from … Read more