The population of illegal immigrants continued to swell yesterday with the arrival of another 108, among them four women and two children.
One group was saved from rough seas and some of those belonging to a second group tried to escape in their boat to continue their journey to Italy.
The first group, made up of 75 men and two women, were rescued from an unseaworthy dinghy by a Spanish fishing boat 64 nautical miles to the south of Malta.
A spokesman for the Armed Forces of Malta said the captain of the boat, the Hernandez, reported seeing the migrants adrift in a rubber dinghy taking in water and with outboard engine problems at about 3 a.m. yesterday.
Initial reports also indicated that one of the migrants was unconscious and immediately taken aboard the fishing vessel for first aid treatment.
The spokesman said that a Malta Freeport-bound merchant ship, the Stadt Goslar, registered in Antigua and Barbuda, was diverted to the scene to lend assistance.
The Stadt Goslar reached the Hernandez at around 8.20 a.m. some 53 miles off the Maltese coast.
A mid-sea transfer of the weak migrants was slowly completed and the merchant vessel immediately started on its way to Marsaxlokk harbour.
In another delicate operation, the migrants were again transferred to two AFM patrol craft in force four to five winds a mile out at sea. They were taken to the Wied il-Buni quayside in Birżebbuġa to await police immigration and detention services personnel.
Also waiting to "welcome" the new arrivals was a group of migrants who are at present in Malta living in open centres.
The group all claim to be from Sudan Barely had this operation been completed when another group of migrants were spotted on a boat at il-Kalanka ż-Żgħira by the AFM's Vessel Traffic Station's CCTV at the Delimara Observation and Radar Post.
Twenty-one migrants, who included 17 men, two women, a boy and a girl, went ashore.
But another 10 men remained aboard their fibre-glass boat and tried to escape to resume their journey to Italy. They were given chase and intercepted by a Police Administrative Law Enforcement vessel.
The AFM spokesman said that contrary to some international wire-news service reports, alleging the loss of some 27 migrants from the fishing-vessel Hernandez, no persons were lost at sea.
The flow of illegal immigrants has been constant throughout the summer. A total of 57, including a baby, reached Malta's shores on Friday and Saturday.