A total of 55 migrants arriving by boat have been intercepted in the last 24 hours off the Balearics.
On board the first boat were 20 people, all of them of North African origin and in apparent good health. The immigrants were intercepted on the coastline in the Punta Roja area of Formentera at around 4.30 pm on Sunday.
According to the Government Delegation today, Monday, the Guardia Civil Maritime Service, Maritime Rescue, Guardia Civil Citizen Security Units and a helicopter were all involved in the operation
Later, at 5.20 p.m., another 22 people of North African origin were intercepted in the same area of the island of Formentera where about 20 immigrants had been intercepted an hour earlier. The Maritime Service of the Guardia Civil, Maritime Rescue, Citizen Security Units of the Guardia Civil and a helicopter were involved again.
Another 13 migrants were intercepted in the early hours of this morning, this time in the town of La Mola. Over 230 migrants were rescued from one flimsy boat on Sunday in seas off the Canary Islands, coastguards said. Fourteen women and three children were found in the same boat which contained a total of 231 people, rescuers said.
It is the largest number of people to be rescued from the same boat off the island of Gran Canaria this year, Spanish coastguards said. Coastguards towed the wooden boat when they found the migrants close to Gran Canaria's main port.Some 32,878 migrants have taken the perilous route in boats from West Africa to the Canary Islands betw een January and October 15, according to government figures, a rise of 39.7% from the same period last year. The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands has seen the fastest growth in irregular migration in recent years, though numbers remain below those on the Central Mediterranean route towards Italy.