MADRID: Spain's coastguard said Friday it had plucked 28 migrants from a ship in the Mediterranean Sea and were looking for other passengers from the vessel who may have gone missing.
"According to the people who were rescued from the ship, some of their companions were swept overboard during the crossing," the coastguard said in a Twitter message.
The ship with the 28 migrants was found 23 nautical miles southeast of the Spanish port of Almeria. A pregnant woman and a minor were among the passengers who were rescued from the ship by the coastguard.
Thousands of migrants fleeing war and hardship try to cross the 15-kilometre (nine-mile) Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain on makeshift boats and inflatable dinghies each year.
Thousands also try to reach Spain by scaling border fences that surround Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish territories inside Morocco which are the European Union's only land borders with Africa.
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