Updated - Human trafficking to Sicily: Van seized

The police have seized a van belonging to one of three Maltese men arrested in Sicily for allegedly ferrying migrants from Malta to Sicily.

Joseph Scerri, 43, of Naxxar, Kurt Buhagiar, 25 of Birkirkara and Michael Aquilina, 36 of Pieta, were arrested on a powerboat in international waters after allegedly disembarking the migrants near Ragusa. The boat was stopped after a 90-minute chase from the Sicilian coast. Warning shots had to be fired.

The Italian coastguard had monitored the powerboat on radar before giving chase.

Two of the Maltese were slightly injured, with one of them, Michael Aquilina, needing some stitches to a head wound. All are now being interrogated.

Informed sources said the arrests were part of an 18-month investigation by the Italian police into human trafficking.

The van was found at St Paul's Bay and the police are trying to establish if the migrants - 18 men and a woman - were carried in it.

The migrants were 11 from Ivory Coast , three from Burkina Faso, two from Nigeria and one each from Senegal, Guinea and Niger.