MADRID, Feb 21 (Reuters) - One African died when a flimsy vessel carrying 35 migrants tried to land off the coast of southern Spain, local government officials said on Saturday.

The boat was taken to the port of Motril by Spanish emergency services responding to an emergency call out.

Some of those rescued had to be treated for hypothermia after being at sea for two days, a local government spokesman said.

Last Monday, at least 21 North African immigrants, many of them children, drowned in sight of bathers as their overcrowded boat capsized off a beach in the Canary Islands.

Spanish authorities generally try to deport migrants arriving illegally by sea, usually from West Africa but also from Morocco.

Tens of thousands have made the crossing to Spain in recent years, while thousands more are believed to have drowned or died of exposure in the search of jobs and a better life in Europe.

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