Teenage migrant pleads guilty to using another person's passport

A teenage illegal immigrant who tried to leave the island illegally just three days after being released from detention was yesterday given a suspended jail term.

The 17-year-old from Nigeria, who cannot be named because he is a minor, at first did not understand what he was being charged with and became visibly nervous until Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona calmed him down and explained the charges.

Police Inspector Geoffrey Azzopardi said the accused had just been released from detention and tried to use a passport issued to someone else to leave the country. He was on his way to Bologna when he was stopped at the airport on Saturday after being released three days earlier.

After filing a guilty plea, the young man was given a two-year jail term suspended for four years. He was even told what a suspended jail term meant.

Legal aid lawyer Noel Bartolo appeared for the migrant.