Migrants brought ashore

Twenty-seven adult irregular migrants, including three women, were yesterday brought ashore after their seven-metre boat was sighted drifting some 40 nautical miles to the south east of Malta.

Following the report of the sighting, the Armed Forces of Malta carried out an extensive search and after the boat was located by an AFM aircraft, the immigrants were escorted by an AFM vessel to the army's maritime base at Haywharf. The immigrants have been handed over to the immigration police. The AFM said they received another two reports of sightings of boats with irregular immigrants in the south east and south west of Malta.

An AFM spokesman said the searches yielded no positive sightings.

An AFM aircraft and two patrol vessels were involved in the three search operations.

A search for a freshly reported boat was underway yesterday evening off the south western coast of Malta.