Regional ministry representative Antonio Cruz said officials were alerted to the approach of the boat off the coast of Motril at 4 p.m. Saturday and launched a rescue operation.
Cruz said that when coast guards approached they saw a dinghy partially underwater with part of its inflatable sections punctured. When those aboard saw the rescue vessel a group stood up, causing the boat to rock and some people to fall into the water.
Their bodies were recovered from the sea, Cruz said, adding that rescue workers also helped 37 survivors aboard the rescue ship.
A man, woman and baby were then taken to a hospital in Motril while a man and a baby were flown by helicopter to a hospital in Almeria, Cruz said.
The remaining 23 men, eight women and one baby, were unhurt and taken ashore at Motril although rescue teams were continuing to search the sea for more people as survivors told officials some of the boat's original occupants were still missing, Cruz said.
Cruz said one of the survivors was a Syrian national while police suspected the rest were Sub-Saharan immigrants hoping to enter Spain illegally.
Every year a large number of suspected illegal immigrants from Africa try to reach what they hope will be a better life in Europe by setting sail in small, fragile boats to Spain.
The European Union has deployed a surveillance system called Frontex to try to detect incoming immigrant boats and intercept them before they reach the mainland or offshore outposts such as Spain's Canary Islands.
The number of migrants arriving in Spain has dropped considerably since it reached a peak of 32,000 in 2006.
