The Latest: Spanish rescuers search for 17 missing migrants

MADRID (AP) - The Latest on migration into Europe (all times local):

9:20 a.m.

Spanish rescue workers are searching the seas and shores of southern Spain, looking for around 17 missing migrants trying to reach Europe in smuggling boats departing from North Africa.

The Spanish Civil Guard also said Tuesday said it had found four bodies of migrants and 22 survivors Monday, all men from northern Africa, after their wooden dinghy hit a reef close to the coast west of the Strait of Gibraltar. The Civil Guard said 13 of the survivors were thought to be unaccompanied minors. It also said the 17 missing people traveling with the group could have reached Spanish shores.

The Civil Guard resumed search operations Tuesday both on the sea and along the shore.

Earlier on Monday, the Spanish sea rescuers found 80 people, including five women, and recovered the bodies of 13 dead migrants in the Alboran Sea, a part of the western Mediterranean migrant route into Europe.

___

8:45 a.m.

Spain's maritime rescue service says at least 17 people have died trying to reach Spain in boats departing from North Africa.

The service says Tuesday that it rescued 80 people Monday, including five women, from two boats and recovered the bodies of 13 dead migrants in the Alboran Sea, part of the western Mediterranean migrant route into Europe. They were all transferred to the Spanish enclave of Melilla, which borders Morocco.

In a separate incident, the Spanish Civil Guard says it found four bodies of migrants and 22 survivors, all men from northern Africa, after the wooden dinghy in which they were travelling hit a reef close to the coast west of the Strait of Gibraltar.

The U.N. says over 2,160 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year.