Nine Nigerian men were repatriated yesterday on a flight funded by the EU after their appeals for asylum had been refused.
The flight, organised and financed by the EU border agency Frontex, originated from the Italian city of Perugia and made a stopover in Malta to pick up the nine men. Migrants who recently escaped from the Safi detention centre to avoid deportation were in the group, the Home Affairs ministry said.
Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici thanked the police force, especially the immigration section, for their work.