A group of 22 would-be illegal immigrants are believed to be heading to Tunisia after they initially commandeered a fishing vessel on high seas in the hope of reaching Italy.
Details about the saga are still sketchy with the Maltese army, the UN refugees agency and the Italian press giving somewhat conflicting reports.
However, it appears that a group of about 37 immigrants was heading towards Lampedusa when the dinghy they were on developed a fault.
A few hours later, a Tunisian fishing boat, which was in the vicinity, offered them help but the transfer of the immigrants onto the fishing boat was interrupted when the Tunisian coast guard appeared out of the blue and instructed them to head back to Africa.
The immigrants ignored the Tunisian coast guard's orders and the dinghy with some 12 individuals drifted away from the rescuing fishing boat. Shortly afterwards, an Italian navy vessel came across the dinghy and took the 12 men on it to Lampedusa.
UNHCR spokesman Laura Boldrini told The Times she had been told by some of those on board that the Tunisian boat had been separated from family members who had managed to board the Italian boat.
On Wednesday afternoon, the AFM were informed that the remaining immigrants had taken control of the Tunisian vessel about 43 miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa, some 90 nautical miles south-west of Malta.
In the meantime, the Tunisian warship Bizerte, which had steamed to assist the fishing vessel, informed the Maltese army on Wednesday night that the immigrants were just 17 miles west of the Maltese islands.
The AFM sent two vessels to the scene and escorted the fishing boat closer to the Bizerte, which remained outside Maltese territorial waters. A total of 22 migrants - nine men, 11 women and two children - were then transferred to the Tunisian warship, in what the Maltese army described as a "delicate" operation. The fishing vessel was subsequently handed back to its crew.
Ms Boldrini said the UNHCR is concerned about the fate of those purportedly heading to Tunisia, especially since there were a number of Ethiopians, Eritreans and Sudanese on board who could be entitled to protection.
In the meantime, about 260 illegal immigrants, including several children, reached Lampedusa in a rickety fishing boat yesterday morning, prompting a crisis on the island's reception centre.
The latest arrivals came amid reports that as many as 16 persons were feared to have drowned when two boats capsized in the Mediterranean stretch of water near Lampedusa on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, dozens of African migrants were lost overboard in heavy seas yesterday as the Spanish coast guard tried to rescue them near the end of a dangerous voyage to the Canary Islands in a wooden boat, Spanish officials said.
About 100 Africans hoping to migrate to Europe were flung into the open sea after their long, canoe-shaped open vessel, known as a cayuco, capsized just as the Spanish coast guard drew alongside to take them aboard before dawn.
Coast guards threw life jackets to them and pulled 48 survivors from the water, government officials said.
But more than 50 people were believed lost in the dark without life jackets in rough seas about 89 nautical miles southwest of the resort island of Tenerife.
The number of boats ferrying migrants to the Canaries, Spain's southernmost territory, has fallen by almost two thirds so far this year since the Spanish government stepped up repatriations of illegal migrants and the European Union started maritime patrols.
About 31,000 migrants made it to the Canaries last year, making illegal immigration one of Spain's biggest political issues. Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says he welcomes legal migrants but that all those who enter Spain without permission will be sent home.