TARIFA: A total of 418 migrants were rescued in three operations off the coast of Spain yesterday, the national rescue service said, reports AFP.

In the largest of these, 262 people on 15 vessels were rescued in the Strait of Gibraltar, Salvamento Maritimo said on Twitter.

Twenty-seven others were found in the Mediterranean between Spain and Morocco and 129 more off the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

The operations come six days after 630 migrants arrived in the Spanish port of Valencia aboard three vessels, including the NGO rescue ship Aquarius.

The Aquarius rescued the migrants off Libya’s coast on June 9 but Italy’s new populist government and Malta both refused to let it dock, triggering an international outcry, before Spain stepped in to help.