Salvamento Marítimo (Sea Rescue) rescued 93 people Sunday morning who were heading for the Spanish coast from Morocco in two open boats.

The Spokesperson for Salvamento Marítimo explained that at their Almeria, coordination centre they had received an alert late Saturday evening that two pateras (open boats) were on their way and so began search operations.

Finally, around 07.00h Sunday morning the rescue launch, Salvamar Gienah located one of them with 58 North-African males aboard, whom they immediately took to Motril Port.

The same launch went out again. They had received a radio message from a merchant ship, Wasa Express, which gave the coordinates of the second patera.

Thanks to this information, the second craft with 35 North-African males was intercepted, two of whom could be minors. The were all transferred to Motril Port, whom, together with the first batch, would be receive medical attention, clothing and food by the Red Cross before being handed over to the police for processing.

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