Eighty-seven more migrants arrived in southern Spain on Thursday after being rescued off the coast of Libya
ADVERTISEMENTEighty-seven migrants arrived by boat in the southern Spanish city of Algeciras on Thursday. The rescue vessel Open Arms found them floating an inflatable raft with a broken motor off the coast of Libya on August 02. Those saved included 84 from Sudan, a Syrian, an Egyptian and a Gambian. There were 12 children in the group.
"The people were in a very bad state and very frightened," the head of the Open Arms mission told reporters. "Rescue operations were also quite complicated for our rescue teams because these guys inside the boat were really afraid about us being Libyan citizens. The first reaction they had was to jump into the sea because they said that they prefer to die than to be returned to Libya."
Having arrived in Spain the migrants will now be processed before being granted refuge in Europe or deported back to where they came from. Spain's new centre-left government made fair treatment for migrants one of its headline policies after coming to power two months ago.