A boat packed with an unknown number of illegal immigrants was sighted off Malta in the afternoon and the AFM patrol boats were last night escorting the 35-foot boat into port.

The Armed Forces of Malta said it was still too early to say where the illegal immigrants came from. Women and children were believed to be among those on board.

The AFM said the boat was sighted off the west coast of Malta at about 5.05 p.m. However, until some six hours later, the illegal immigrants had still not been brought into port.

Only last Thursday, 93 African immigrants aboard a 30-foot boat, landed at Cirkewwa, bringing the total of illegal immigrants arriving in Malta so far this year to over 1,000.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.