The Spanish government said on Thursday that some 200 migrants tried to swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighboring Morocco. Nine people drowned in the process while the remaining 91 were rescued by the Spanish Navy.
Spain has two enclaves in the North African country, Ceuta and Mellila and illegal migrants regularly try to reach them either by swimming along the coast or climbing the triple walls that separate them from Morocco.
The Italian authorities also said the latest migrants were found in eight separates boats in a location on the high sea which is about some 222km south-east of the island of Lampedusa.
The Italian navy said they rescued 1,123 people from the boats and alerted that illegal migration from North Africa has reached its record level in Italy.
Those rescued and sent to Lampedusa include 47 women, four of them pregnant and 50 children who were making the deadly journey to Europe.
The Italian authorities said the migrants are being transported to San Marco where they will be assessed to see if they have reasonable grounds for seeking asylum. Italian laws allow asylum of illegal migrants rescued on the sea if there are reasonable grounds for the migration.
But the migrants have greater responsibility as they have to satisfy the authorities that they are fleeing persecution and would face harm or even death if sent back to their country of origin.
The Spanish Interior Minister, Jorge Fernandez Diaz said pressure on Ceuta and Melilla has intensified as more migrants try to access Spain and other European countries on the shores of the Mediterranean by land rather than by sea where controls have increased. He however blamed the increase on the Arab Spring which has left many North African countries weak in their security operations.
“The unstable situation that created the Arab Spring, the huge amount of people displaced by violent conflict and the tragedy of Syria has added to traditional sub-Saharan migration,” he said.
Around 3,000 illegal migrants entered Spain in the first half of 2013 official and data shows double the figure for the same period in 2012. Most came through the Moroccan enclaves.
According to the Italian government last year, a total of 42,925 illegal migrants arrivals by sea which is more than three times in 2012.
The true number of migrants who died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe is not known exactly but in October, more than 400 people were drowned in two shipwrecks near the Italian island of Lampedusa. All of them died.
Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News
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