More migrants flee

Seven illegal immigrants who escaped from the Safi detention centre on Friday were apprehended but another 14 escaped yesterday afternoon when guards opened the gates to let a doctor in.

Six of them were caught soon after but the rest were still on the run last night. They are all Tunisian.

Sources said they rushed to the gates as they were being opened to let a foreign female doctor in at about 3.30 p.m.

The doctor was slightly injured when she was pushed to the ground as the migrants forced their way out of the centre. The police and the Armed Forces have launched a search for the eight remaining escapees.

The Tunisians, who form part of the group of 71 who arrived here on February 1, are waiting to be repatriated. They are angry about having ended up in detention here instead of landing in Italy. Their repatriation is pending as documents are being prepared by the Tunisian authorities.

Last Thursday some Tunisians from the same group of 71 staged a protest at their own place of detention at Ħal Far's Lyster Barracks, setting mattresses alight and breaking window panes.

Meanwhile, the six Tunisian and one Moroccan migrant who spent the weekend on the run after escaping from Safi on Friday were apprehended on Sunday night when they went to the Ħal Far open centre to sleep under the tents there.

Sources said Detention Services personnel were alerted to the presence of the men after refugees at the centre were irked that their mattresses had been taken. The men are in detention again and are expected to appear in court in the coming days, charged with escaping.