Six Algerians who were rescued at sea by a P&O cruise ship were delivered to UK immigration authorities yesterday.

The men were found in a stricken vessel off the Balearic Islands on Thursday, having run out of supplies, and were drifting with no lights or radio equipment, passengers on board the P&O's Oceana said.

A seventh passenger was also rescued but died after being taken to a hospital in Spain, according to Oceana passengers. The other six have recovered and, after returning to Southampton at 7am yesterday, were handed over to UK immigration officials.

The Home Office is in talks with P&O about the incident and is deciding what to do with the group.

A spokesman for the Home Office said: "While our priority will be to deal with the humanitarian issues of the group we will be considering various options for dealing with them.

"It is extremely rare for persons to be rescued at sea and brought to the UK.

"Anyone arriving in the UK will be assessed as to their admissibility under immigration rules."

The spokesman said that under the International Maritime Organisation search and rescue conventions, people rescued at sea should be disembarked at the nearest place of safety.

The Oceana, which carries more than 2000 passengers and 875 crew, had been on a two-week cruise to the western Mediterranean.

Steven Walker, a passenger, said the ship stopped in Gibraltar and one of the group was taken to hospital in Spain where he later died. "It was about 2am when the rescue happened, most of the passengers were asleep but they did put a warning out," he said.

"The boat was drifting with no radio or lights. Obviously it was potentially quite dangerous so they sent an inflatable out to see what was going on and then brought them on board."

P&O refused to comment on the incident.