COASTGUARD officials have rescued 30 men and three women from a precarious rowing-boat heading for Spain from north Africa via the 'back door'.
They spotted the craft, which is barely seaworthy and not designed for such a high number of passengers, at around 17 nautical miles off the shores of Almería port in the Alborán Sea some time around 20.30 last night (Tuesday).
A tip-off from a migrant welfare charity at 15.15 meant the coastguard was already waiting for the craft.
It set off from the Charrana area in northern Morocco carrying sub-Saharan Africans about five days earlier.
Red Cross officials were stationed in the port, and all 33 are said to be in good health, albeit dehydrated and with mild hypothermia.
Just 12 hours before they reached dry land, another 24 sub-Saharan African men on a boat which was about to sink were rescued 17 miles out to sea off the Cabo de Gata area of Almería.
They said their craft had suffered engine failure, but they were all brought to shore safe and sound at 13.10.
All this came on the same day that two toy-boats full of would-be migrants were intercepted in the Strait of Gibraltar.
The first was evacuated at around 06.15 and 11 African men taken to the port of Tarifa (Cádiz province).
Barely two hours later, a second craft carrying 10 other African men was found and its occupants joined those of the first boat in the port.
They were treated by the Red Cross and found to be in good health.
This means a total of 78 have been rescued on the same day off the shores of Andalucía, highlighting once again how the migrant crisis is leading huge numbers of desperate escapees to risk their lives daily trying to reach a better life and relief from poverty, armed conflict and political turmoil.
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