600 migrants rescued in 24 hours by the Spanish coastguard

600 migrants have been rescued in the last 24 hours during their attempt to cross the Mediterranean from Morocco to Spain, the Telegraph reports.

Spanish coastguards have saved 593 people on Wednesday, 424 of them in the Giblartar Strait and 169 near Alboran, a small islet in the Alboran Sea, part of the western Mediterranean, about 50 km north of the Moroccan coast and 90 kilometres south of the Spanish province of Almería.

The migrants made it using two rafts, one of them was carrying six children and they were rescued in Giblartar Strait earlier this morning.

According to the same source, «the number of migrants arriving in Spain by sea has tripled this year and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) last week warned that the country could soon overtake Greece as a maritime gateway to Europe».

More than 8,000 migrants have attempted to reach Spain through the route linking Morocco and the European country. While last year the number was limited to 2,500 migrants.