Rescued migrants brought ashore

Tired and disoriented illegal immigrants from Somalia - 18 men and seven women - were yesterday back on land at Haywharf after an ordeal at sea in which their boat capsized 80 nautical miles south of Malta.

They were brought in by an AFM patrol boat to which they were transferred from the Italian fishing vessel Esaco at sunrise yesterday.

The group had been rescued by the trawler after their boat capsized. Two other women forming part of the group and who were in poor condition were winched from the trawler by an Italian Military Mission helicopter and taken to St Luke's Hospital for treatment on Wednesday evening.

The AFM offshore patrol boat P51 left its base at Haywharf on Wednesday at about 11.15 p.m. with press photographers on board.

The Esaco was sighted at first light yesterday and the 25 migrants, including two 15-year-olds, were transferred onto the patrol craft by means of an army dinghy.

Present at the time of their landing at Haywharf was AFM Commander Carmel Vassallo, the Commanding Officer Detentions Services, Lt Col Brian Gatt, and a number of police immigration officers with an ambulance standing by. The immigrants, though evidently exhausted, disembarked from the patrol boat unaided and were taken away in a police bus.

Initial reports that had indicated the group was made up mostly of women and children were incorrect, the AFM said.

The drama started to unfold when a foreign individual residing in Malta informed army personnel on Wednesday morning that there were about 27 immigrants in distress out at sea. An Islander plane was sent out and spotted them alongside a tuna pen belonging to Azzopardi Fisheries being towed by the Esaco, which took them on board.

Last week, another Azzopardi Fisheries trawler had refused to take aboard a group of migrants who were clinging to the buoys of its tuna pen, in an incident which provoked an outcry in Europe. Another controversy was sparked off when a Spanish tug boat, which rescued illegal immigrants in the Libyan search and rescue zone, headed for Spain earlier this week after the Maltese government refused to accept the migrants.

More boat people arrived last night, this time a group consisting of 27 men and six women, one of whom is pregnant.

The boat was intercepted four miles south of Malta and was escorted to Marsaxlokk by the army's patrol boat P24.

Another patrol vessel had to be dispatched to meet the boat when the immigrants indicated to the army personnel that they did not want to come ashore.

The latest group brings to nearly 233 the number who have landed or been brought ashore over the past week.