Madrid, Jan 4 (efe-epa).- A total of 57,498 migrants crossed the sea, often in unseaworthy vessels, to reach Spanish territory in 2018, a 167.7 percent increase from the previous year, Spain's interior ministry said Friday. 
       
The number was 2.6 times higher than the 21,971 people who were registered in 2017 as having crossed the Mediterranean Sea or the Gibraltar Strait from North Africa – many of whom were rescued by Spanish coastguards in the open sea. 
       
The majority, some 54,703 people, landed on the country's southern coast or the Balearic islands, compared to 20,611 in 2017.