Twelve migrants missing off the Spanish coast
Rescue services were looking for 12 migrants missing off the coast of Spain on Sunday. Their boat capsized while attempting to reach land from Algeria, the Spanish coast guard said.
The operation was launched after a Norwegian sailboat said it had rescued an Algerian migrant several nautical miles off the coast of Almeria, in the south of the country, a Coast Guard spokesman said. A helicopter that was sent out was able to rescue a second migrant from the water.
The two migrants said they had left by boat with 12 others last week in Oran, in northwestern Algeria. After the engine broke down, the boat capsized Sunday morning.
A ship also sank west of Cape Trafalgar on Thursday. Two men were found on board, a woman was rescued after being found in the water. Nine bodies were recovered, and sixteen others are still missing.
And just Sunday, a man was found dead on a boat carrying more than 40 migrants that arrived in Gran Canaria. The migrants had been on the road for a week. On Sunday, the coastguard also rescued sixteen ships off the Balearic Islands, with more than 200 people on board.
Spain is one of the main access routes to Europe for the migrants departing from North Africa by boat.
More than 27,000 migrants arrived in Spain or the Spanish islands between January and the end of September last year, 54 percent more than in the same period last year.
At least 1,025 people have died during the dangerous crossing this year. 2021 is the deadliest year for the migration route to Spain, according to the International Organization for Migration.
