152 migrants leave for Germany
'I hope to revisit Malta as a tourist' - migrant
A group of 152 migrants left for Germany this morning in what Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici described as 'solidarity in action'.
Most of the migrants, including several women and children, hailed from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. They arrived in Malta from Libya last March.
Some of them this morning thanked the Maltese people for having offered them shelter, with one of them exclaiming that he hoped to revisit the island as a tourist.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici, who was at the airport with the German Ambassador, urged the migrants to work hard and integrate in their new society. He also thanked Germany for taking the migrants, noting that Germany had already taken another 150 migrants from Malta.
This, he said, was solidarity in action. It also showed that Malta was not alone in tackling immigration.
He hoped that another 100 migrants would leave Malta for another country by the end of the year.
The German ambassador, Hubert Ziegler, urged the migrants to be good citizens. He thanked the German community in Malta for having helped them by donating warm winter clothing.