Spain’s coastguard has revealed that it rescued 600 migrants crossing from Morocco in a 24-hour period amid a spike in the number of migrant arrivals.
The rescued migrants, including 35 children and a baby, were travelling in fifteen vessels including toy paddleboats and a jet ski.
According to the United Nations, more than 9,000 people have arrived in Spain so far this year, three times the number recorded last year.
More than 120 people are believed to have drowned while attempting to make the precarious journey.
That increase in crossings now means Spain could overtake Greece this year in terms of the number of migrants arriving by sea, , the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said earlier this month.
Most are sailing across the 12km (seven-mile) Strait of Gibraltar and many are choosing cheap, child-sized paddle boats without motors that allow them to bypass people-smuggling networks and their fees.
Majority of those attempting the journey are reported to be West Africans, with Nigeria, Guinea and Ivory Coast topping the list.
The numbers heading for Spain are dwarfed by the boatloads that have sailed to Italy this year.
Nearly 100,000 people have crossed from Libya to Italy since the start of the year. The IOM says 2,242 people have died on that route.
