This is the moment a shocked British tourist who was looking for dolphins instead spots migrants stranded on a small boat off the coast of Spain.
The cruise ship was travelling around 50 miles south of Marbella when the concerned passenger saw the migrants waving for help on Wednesday afternoon.
The captain of the cruise ship alerted the Spanish authorities who then rescued the small boat, which was carrying around eight people, at around 4.30pm local time.
The passenger, who wished to remain anonymous, told MailOnline: ‘I spotted the boat about a mile away from the cruise ship.
‘I was looking for dolphins with my camera, as my daughter had seen them earlier as we were passing through the Gibraltar Strait.
A British man on a cruise shop spots migrants in tiny boat off the coast of Marbella
The Spanish authorities came to rescue the stranded small boat that was carrying people waving for help
‘The ship’s crew did an excellent job at bringing the ship to a stop in the distance we had. The deck crew were showing concern too.
‘Everyone was out on their balconies and looking concerned for the people in the boat.
‘The captain kept us all informed every 15 minutes which was really good.’
He added that a couple of other boats in the area, including a ferry. came to help the stranded small boat.
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In total, the cruise ship was held on standby for around one hour, forty minutes while the rescue was carried out.
It comes as Spain is facing an unprecedent migrant crisis with the president of the Balearic Islands warning last month that the holiday hotspot is at its limit.
Marga Prohens’s comments were made after the Spanish central government announced it was considering the possibility of distributing unaccompanied minors who reach the country around the autonomous communities.
The idea behind the scheme is to provide relief to the areas of Spain that welcome the most migrants, in particular the Canary Islands, where the majority of small vessels are intercepted.
Ms Prohens, however, said the Balearic Islands are ‘at their limit as the centres for minors are operating at 650 percent overcapacity’.
In July last year, the Spanish coastguard rescued 86 people from a migrant boat off the cost of the Canary Islands.
The captain of the cruise ship alerted the Spanish authorities who then guided the small boat (pictured), which was carrying around eight people, to shore at around 4.30pm local time
Pictured: The Spanish coast guard on its way to rescue the small boat
Pictured: The small boat stranded around 50 miles off the coast of Marbella in southern Spain
Pictured: The Spanish coast guard on its way to rescue the small boat
The vessel was spotted 70 nautical miles (130km) south-west of the islands.
Those rescued included 80 men and six women from sub-Saharan Africa but the boat’s exact departure location was unknown.
An estimated 15,682 people arrived in the Canary Islands illegally in 2022, according to Spain’s interior ministry.
And the same year at least 559 people died at sea attempting to make the journey to the Spanish territory, the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
In the UK, Home Office statistics from this week show that there were 114 small boat arrivals on Monday, following 267 over the weekend.
It means 3,710 migrants have reached Britain since the beginning of July, not including the unconfirmed number of arrivals from earlier this week.
The total since the beginning of the year has now reached 17,284, up 15 per cent on the same point last year.
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