The Spanish sea rescue service and the police were searching for three missing migrants on Tuesday in the Mediterranean Sea south of Mallorca.
A ship and a helicopter were being used for the search, a local Spanish government spokesman said.
The three missing people belonged to a group of 17 who had got into distress the day before in stormy weather. They were travelling on a small boat from Algeria, attempting to reach the Balearic island, a local government spokesman said.
The other 14 men had been rescued. One of them was still in hospital on Tuesday.
The government initially announced that 11 of the men had drowned, but later corrected this information.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 27,000 migrants had reached Spain by mid-September this year, 1,500 of them the Balearic Islands. Once they reach European shores, the migrants hope to get permission to stay.
According to the UN Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 149 people died on the route by the middle of the year.
The number of unreported cases, however, is probably higher.
