A group of 31 illegal immigrants were rescued and escorted inland by the Armed Forces of Malta after the army were alerted about their predicament by the skipper of a Maltese trawler, the AFM said yesterday.

The group consists of 26 males, four females and one child.

The skipper informed the AFM that the passengers on board a five-metre boat said they were running out of fuel and needed assistance. They claimed they were from Togo and Nigeria. The boat was about 65 miles south-south west of Malta. The trawler was instructed to stay on site until the arrival of an AFM patrol vessel.

The patrol boat collected the immigrants and escorted them to the AFM headquarters at Haywharf in Pieta.'

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