Another group of 25 illegal immigrants was brought into Malta by the Armed Forces early yesterday morning while attempts to rescue a number of immigrants in the Libyan search and rescue region are under way.
The group of illegal immigrants - who included one woman - were brought to Hay Wharf, Floriana, at around 5.20 a.m. police said yesterday. The police said they came from sub-Saharan countries.
Just a few hours earlier, the AFM accompanied a group of 29 Somali illegal immigrants, including 10 women and three children, into Marsaxlokk.
Meanwhile, the AFM said its Rescue and Co-ordination Centre was actively involved in co-ordinating two rescue efforts in the Libyan search and rescue region.
In one case, 27 immigrants had boarded a tuna cage which was being towed by a Maltese-registered trawler.
The AFM said that late yesterday morning it had been informed that a Spanish-registered tugboat had picked up another 26 migrants from a boat in the Libyan region.
The Italian news agency ANSA reported that Italian naval and aerial forces continued to search for the "phantom" boat with at least 53 illegal immigrants aboard, which disappeared at sea earlier in the week after it was sighted on Monday morning by an Islander aircraft of the Armed Forces of Malta some 88 miles south of the island.
Meanwhile, according to an AFM press release, an AFM patrol boat was sent to assist the sailing boat Caprice, which was sailing some two nautical miles off the northern coast of Gozo after the AFM's Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Luqa Barracks headquarters was informed at 2.50 p.m. that the Caprice had a rope entangled in its propeller.
A 4th Regiment Explosives Ordnance Disposal diver was rushed to the scene from their base on Manoel Island to assist the stranded vessel.
In a separate incident later in the afternoon, AFM assistance was sought by a local pleasure craft, Alivok, with a woman who was on board suffering from fits.
However, since the vessel was close the shore, it was instructed to make port, to be met by an emergency response ambulance dispatched from St Luke's Hospital. The woman was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment.