MADRID: Spain’s marine rescue service says it has saved 183 migrants who had been trying to reach the country from north Africa in the past 24 hours.

The service said one of its vessels intercepted a boat with 42 people aboard near the southwestern Trafalgar Cape late Wednesday. Hours later, it said it found another boat with 45 people, including women and children, in the same area.

On Wednesday, the service rescued 96 people in three boats about halfway between Spain and Morocco.

About 50 people were feared drowned in the same area this week after a boat believed to be carrying 52 migrants was found nearly sunken. Three young men were rescued from the rubber boat. The service said Thursday it had given up the search for further survivors.

Amnesty International says Europe has made a dangerous turn on the Mediterranean Sea as it looks to Libya for help in slowing the number of migrants attempting to reach the continent.

The human rights group said in a report released Thursday that Europe’s strategy of training the Libyan coast guard to rescue migrants in flimsy boats is “reckless.”

Amnesty says that by turning to Libya, a country in chaos that is the jumping-off point for the hazardous journey, the European Union is putting desperate migrants in a double bind.

The organization says they face the risk of dying at sea or grave human rights abuses once they are returned to Libya.

The report says more than 2,000 migrants have died on the Mediterranean this year while over 73,380 reached Italy.