A man who was apparently trying to reach Spain from Morocco using a rubber ring and flippers has been rescued after he was spotted by a family sailing to the Balearic islands.
The family were on their yacht 13 nautical miles south of the Andalucían town of Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol, on 16 July when they manoeuvred around the stern of an oil tanker and saw something moving on the waves.
According to the Diario Sur newspaper, they assumed it was a bird until they looked through a pair of binoculars and realised it was a person.
Video of the rescue, shared on social media by the Spanish Royal Assembly of Yacht Captains (RAECY), shows the exhausted young man swimming towards the yacht as a rope is thrown for him to grab.
After bringing him on to the boat, the family gave him water, clothes and a cup of soup.
“We’ve called in a shipwrecked man and we’re going to pick him up,” says a man in the footage as he pans the camera around the empty waters. “It’s incredible where he is because just look, all the passing boats are really far away from him.”
Sources at the RAECY said the man was wearing a wetsuit and was equipped with only the ring and a pair of flippers. “He almost didn’t speak,” they said.
The family headed for the port of Estepona but were met by a maritime rescue service vessel at sea that took the man to port in Málaga and handed him over to police and the Red Cross.
Such dangerous crossings are not uncommon.
“Dozens of migrants try to reach Spain like this, using the only basic means they can afford,” wrote María Martín, migration correspondent for the Spanish daily newspaper El País. She said it was a method often used by young men trying to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in north Africa, but added it was less common among those trying to cross the wider stretch of the Alborán Sea between Morocco and Spain.
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“There have been similar episodes over the past few years of young men climbing aboard toy [rubber dinghies] or staying afloat using lilos or armbands that they’ve bought in Moroccan shops,” Martín added.
Sources in the Guardia Civil police force, which patrols Spain’s borders, told El País: “We didn’t think this would get so much coverage. Depending on the time of year, this can be a regular thing.”
According to the International Organisation for Migration, 572 people died last year while trying to reach Spain from north Africa, while 151 people have lost their lives so far this year.
