Spain's coastguard union has warned the service was completely "overwhelmed" by surging numbers of migrant crossings, as more than 600 people were rescued from rafts in the Gibraltar Strait in just one morning.
The union for Spain's Maritime Rescue Agency issued an urgent call for resources to help it cope with the "massive arrival of immigrants".
Crew reinforcements were desperately needed to guarantee they could continue saving lives, it said. The "extraordinary upturn" in arrivals had meant "an absolute overflow of work" for maritime rescue centres, many of which already had "insufficient" crew levels, it added.
The warning came as the Spanish coastguard pulled 627 people from 35 rafts in the Gibraltar Strait yesterday morning, bringing arrivals to more than 2,000 this week alone.
Groups totalling a few dozen were also picked up yesterday in Murcia, Majorca and Alicante.
The country is now the largest gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, with 20,992 people landing on its shores so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Arrivals to Italy now trail Spain by almost 3,000 - a gap that just a week ago was 200. Yesterday, the government announced an extra €30m for agencies dealing with the migratory challenge. Magdalena Valerio, the work, migration and social security minister, called for help from the EU and said Madrid was worried by Thursday's events in Ceuta, one of Spain's two outposts in Morocco, where more than 600 migrants forced their way through the border fence.
Two Civil Guard unions also called for urgent assistance in the face of what they said were increasingly well planned incursions into the two enclaves, Europe's only land borders with Africa.
Thursday's forced entry was said by security forces to be of "unprecedented violence", with the group throwing quicklime, stones and excrement to fend off officers. The Red Cross said more than 130 people had required medical treatment.
Both Spanish authorities and experts have blamed the increase on the crackdown on the central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy, where the new populist government has barred NGO rescue ships from docking.
Migration was a key topic at Thursday's meeting between Spain's new Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez and Emmanuel Macron, the French president.
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| Groups totalling a few dozen were also picked up yesterday in Murcia, Majorca and Alicante. |
The union for Spain's Maritime Rescue Agency issued an urgent call for resources to help it cope with the "massive arrival of immigrants".
Crew reinforcements were desperately needed to guarantee they could continue saving lives, it said. The "extraordinary upturn" in arrivals had meant "an absolute overflow of work" for maritime rescue centres, many of which already had "insufficient" crew levels, it added.
The warning came as the Spanish coastguard pulled 627 people from 35 rafts in the Gibraltar Strait yesterday morning, bringing arrivals to more than 2,000 this week alone.
Groups totalling a few dozen were also picked up yesterday in Murcia, Majorca and Alicante.
The country is now the largest gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, with 20,992 people landing on its shores so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Arrivals to Italy now trail Spain by almost 3,000 - a gap that just a week ago was 200. Yesterday, the government announced an extra €30m for agencies dealing with the migratory challenge. Magdalena Valerio, the work, migration and social security minister, called for help from the EU and said Madrid was worried by Thursday's events in Ceuta, one of Spain's two outposts in Morocco, where more than 600 migrants forced their way through the border fence.
Two Civil Guard unions also called for urgent assistance in the face of what they said were increasingly well planned incursions into the two enclaves, Europe's only land borders with Africa.
Thursday's forced entry was said by security forces to be of "unprecedented violence", with the group throwing quicklime, stones and excrement to fend off officers. The Red Cross said more than 130 people had required medical treatment.
Both Spanish authorities and experts have blamed the increase on the crackdown on the central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy, where the new populist government has barred NGO rescue ships from docking.
Migration was a key topic at Thursday's meeting between Spain's new Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez and Emmanuel Macron, the French president.
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