(Adds nationalities)

Forty-four illegal migrants landed at Marsascala at 3 a.m. today, the second group of migrants to arrive this month after a two-month gap.

The authorities were alerted by campers at the former Jerma Hotel site and an AFM patrol boat and police mobile units were immediately deployed to the Jerma's Water Sports facility where the migrants were arrested.

The migrants arrived on board a 30-foot long rubber dinghy, and claimed to have left Libya some four days ago. The group included two women. Seventeen are claiming to be Somalis, 21 said they were from Mali, three from the Ivory Coast, two from Gambia and one from Guinea.

They claimed that one of their party had died in transit and was dropped overboard during their journey.

A group of 28 Somalis arrived in Malta on July 14, landing in St Thomas Bay.

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