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The alarm was raised this morning when the blow-up boats which had set sail from Morocco were spotted by NGO monitors as they tried to reach the European mainland by crossing the treacherous
Straits of Gibraltar. Spanish authorities scrambled a lifeboats and a search and rescue helicopter which located the first migrant craft seven miles off the southern Spanish port of Tarifa.
Six men and a woman from sub-Saharan Africa were crammed onto the dinghy but were said to be in good health by rescuers despite their ordeal at sea. The second boat with 10 men packed
tightly aboard was spotted about an hour later 15 miles off the southern tip of Spain. All 17 migrants were taken aboard the lifeboat and disembarked at Tarifa where they were offered
medical attention by the Red Cross. They were rescued a week after 240 African migrants drowned the Mediterranean when the boats they were in sank off the coast of Libya. The incident
brought the number of people who have been killed crossing the see from Africa and the Middle East this year to 4,220. Mike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said:
"This is a humanitarian crisis and regardless of why people are making the journey, no one deserves to die in this way. "The Red Cross is present along the entire migratory route
and we have seen first-hand the horrors people endure just to get somewhere safe. "This will not end until Europe’s politicians are able to offer better protection, including more legal
routes for refugees to reach a place of safety. "Until then, all we can do is continue to rescue as many people as we can from a truly horrific and terrifying death.”