Forty-seven immigrants were rescued from a sinking, open boat, together with a dead body yesterday morning. Five others had died at sea and had been thrown overboard.

Salvamento Marítimo and a Guardia Civil located the craft 37 nautical miles south of Motril. The survivors were mostly Sub-Saharans (Sierra Leona, Mali and Guinea) but the dead man was from Bangladesh.

The rescuers brought the survivors, 17 of whom were females, into Motril Port around 06.30h yesterday.

It was a Spanish Air Force aircraft that had first spotted the stricken boat around three hours earlier (03.30h) and radioed its bearings to the Salvamento Marítimo launch, Salvamar Hamal. After the survivors had beeb brought in, the Sasemar 101 search & rescue aircraft was despatched to look for the five bodies thrown overboard, which was later joined by two S&R ships, María Zambrano and Luz de Mar.

Editorial comment: the reason that these desperate people die en route is because of the very low temperatures out to sea during the night and exhaustion from being thrown about, soaking wet, in an open boat.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)