Police hold man as more migrants arrive

A group of 23 illegal immigrants, including one woman, was brought to Malta on an army patrol boat yesterday afternoon, the second group to be landed in less than 48 hours.

The group, thought to consist mostly of Eritreans, was spotted in a boat 59 miles south of Malta in the morning.

A Tunisian man, who speaks Maltese, was also on the boat with the immigrants and the police were trying to establish exactly what he was doing there. He was taken away, handcuffed, in an unmarked police car while the other migrants were driven out of the army maritime base at Haywharf in a police bus.

A group of 45 immigrants, mostly Ethiopians, were brought in on Friday night after the Rescue Coordinating Centre in Rome informed the Armed Forces of Malta they had been spotted on a rubber dinghy some 80 nautical miles south of Malta.