Madrid - Spain's maritime rescue service says it has rescued 54 migrants, including one pregnant woman, from a small boat trying to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. The rescue service says that it intercepted the migrant's boat early Sunday around five miles (eight kilometers) south of the Spanish coast near the city of Cadiz. The boat was carrying 44 men and 10 women, one of whom appeared to be pregnant, according to the rescue service. The maritime service believes the boat left from Morocco. The number of migrants arriving on Spain's southern coast has more than doubled in 2017 from last year as they avoid passing through conflict-wracked Libya on their way to Europe. Eight boats carrying 380 people have been rescued since Wednesday in the Alboran Sea, which connects northeastern Morocco and southeastern Spain, in the Western Mediterranean. "We are worried because we are seeing numbers which we have not seen in years. And it's a dangerous area, where the currents are very strong," said the spokesman for the Spanish branch of rights group SOS Racisme, Mikel Araguas.
