Spanish rescue boats picked up nearly 500 migrants from Africa near the Canary Islands on Friday night, they reported.
More than 300 people were taken aboard the search and rescue vessel Guardamar Calliope to the port town of La Restinga on the southern tip of the island of El Hierro, the Spanish rescue service said on X.
At the same time, four other ships were deployed to rescue the remaining people and take them to the Canary Islands of La Gomera and Lanzarote.
In recent days, hundreds of migrants have reached the Spanish archipelago off the west coast of Africa in small, often poorly seaworthy wooden boats.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 27,000 migrants from Africa arrived in the Canary Islands between January and mid-September.
This is significantly more than in the same period last year, when a total of 38,302 migrants were registered on the archipelago up to and including December.
The boats usually leave from the West African coast, between Guinea in the south and Morocco in the north.
Many residents of the Canary Islands feel overwhelmed by the number of refugees and abandoned by the central government in Madrid and the European Union.
The exact number of people who drowned or died of thirst during the long journey of hundreds of kilometers in open boats is unknown.
The respected and well-connected Spanish aid organisation Caminando Fronteras (Walking Frontiers) estimates that around 4,800 people have lost their lives between January and the end of May alone.
