Article content

Spain’s coastguard union warned yesterday (Friday) that the service was completely “overwhelmed” by a dramatic rise in the number of migrant crossings, as more than 600 people were rescued from rafts in the Strait of Gibraltar in just one morning.

The union for Spain’s Maritime Rescue agency issued an urgent call for resources to help it cope with the “massive arrival of immigrants” on the country’s shores. Crew reinforcements were desperately needed to guarantee they could continue saving lives, it said in a statement.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Spain coastguard 'overwhelmed' by 'extraordinary upturn' wave of migrants Back to video

The “extraordinary upturn” in arrivals had meant “an absolute overflow of work” for maritime rescue centres, many of which already had “insufficient” crew levels, it said.

The warning came as the Spanish coastguard pulled 627 people from 35 rafts in the Strait of Gibraltar yesterday morning, bringing arrivals to more than 2,000 this week alone. Groups totalling a few dozen were also picked up yesterday in Murcia, Majorca and Alicante. The country is now the largest gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, with 20,992 people landing on its shores so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Arrivals to Italy now trail Spain by almost 3000 — a gap that just a week ago was 200.