Two boats of immigrants intercepted in 24 hours

Palma.—The Guardia Civil have intercepted two small motors carrying illegal immigrants in Balearic waters in 24 hours.
The first was spotted by the SIVE Integrated Exterior Vigilance System, part of a network of the radar controlling the Balearic coastline, late on Wednesday night carry 14 immigrants just off the south of the island.
Nine claimed to have been minors but, but medical tests showed that only one is under 18 and he is now in the custody of the Juvenile Courts.
The other 13, along with the 14 intercepted yesterday were yesterday being processed by the National Police before being transferred to a holding camp on the mainland within the next 72 hours where they will remain until they are deported.
The alarm was raised about the second boar at midnight on Thursday and was intercepted by a Guardia Civil maritime patrol to the south of Cabrera.
These two boats take the total number of vessels carrying illegal immigrants intercepted in Balearics waters this year to four. In 2016, three were stopped, 2015 another three and 2014 just two.
Elsewhere in Spain, Spanish rescue ships saved 73 migrants, including one pregnant woman, from five different smuggling boats trying to cross the sea from Africa to Europe during a period of  24 hours.
The pregnant woman and 25 other migrants were aboard a vessel that was taking on water in the Atlantic Ocean when reached by the rescue boat Salvamar Gadir before daybreak yesterday.
They were found 15 miles (24 kilometres) southwest of the Atlantic coastal town of Barbate, which lies between Cadiz and Gibraltar. Emergency services for Spain’s Andalusia region said the 20 men and six women were all of North African descent.