Migrant drowns metres from land

A migrant who could not swim was only metres away from shore when he was overcome by the joy of making it safely ashore and drowned.

Sources said he battled the strong swell as the remainder of the group he travelled with swam the last few metres to shore. His body was later taken on board a patrol boat.

The migrant was aboard one of two boats, which had a boy, 65 men and 14 women, three of whom were hospitalised because they were pregnant, which arrived on Wednesday.

The army said it was informed by the police at about 10.30 p.m. that a boatload had already made it to Wied ix-Xoqqa in Birżebbuġa and another with a stalled engine was seen further out at sea. It was eventually towed to the quay in Wied il-Buni by a patrol boat.

Exhausted and dehydrated, the migrants were rounded up by the Detention Service assisted by the police Mobile Squad. The police said the migrants claimed to be Somali.

The last group of immigrants to land before these latest arrivals consisted of 81 men and 34 women. They were transferred onto three patrol boats when a fisherman informed the army of their sinking dinghy.

They also claimed to be Somali.

kbugeja@timesofmalta.com