More immigrants brought in after boat stalls

The wave of illegal immigrant arrivals continued yesterday with another group of 30 made up of 22 men, three women and five children.

The immigrants were picked from their stalled boat by a patrol craft off Malta and handed over to the immigration police for investigations.

The Armed Forces of Malta said they were informed by a Maltese fishing trawler yesterday at about 1.30 a.m. that an 18-foot white boat full of illegal immigrants was sighted about six miles to the east of Marsascala. The police said preliminary investigations showed that the immigrants were from Somalia, Liberia, Egypt, Palestine and the Ivory Coast.

The patrol boat and a search and rescue boat were dispatched to the location indicated and at about 2.25 a.m. the AFM units sighted the boat drifting after an engine failure.

The 30 immigrants were taken on board the patrol boat and the rescue vessel and were later disembarked at the AFM Maritime Squadron base at Haywharf.

They are being kept at Safi Barracks.