Updated 1.52 p.m..

A group of 129 migrants arrived at Marsamxett on board a patrol boat - some 24 hours after their rubber dinghy was spotting in rough seas 70 miles south of Malta yesterday.

One was referred to hospital.

The migrants - mainly men - appeared in good health as they disembarked from the deck of the patrol boat. Some were covered by blankets.

Most of them - 70, are from Gambia, 36 from Senegal, two from Nigeria, three from Sierra Leone, one from Guinea, six from Guinea-Bissau, 10 from Mali, and one from Burkina Faso.

They were transferred to the patrol boat some two miles off Marsaxlokk this morning, having been rescued during the night by the US Navy US amphibious assault ship USS San Antonio, which brought them to Maltese waters. 

The US vessel was also in the news earlier this month when an alleged Al Qaeda operative was interrogated on board last week after having been captured by a US team in a raid on his Tripoli hideaway. The operative, Nazih al-Ragye, better known by the cover name Abu Anas al-Liby, was arraigned before a New York court two days ago.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, currently in Israel, told reporters yesterday that the migrants were being brought to Malta because they were in distress and Malta was the closest port.

He said the priority was to save lives and he did not want to see another tragedy unfold.

Dr Muscat said, however, that it was worrying that Italy had declared a state of emergency in Sicily and Lampedusa was declared to be an unsafe port.

Malta, he said, was speaking to Italy but  was not excluding anything since its own resources were already stretched.

"I hope this puts more pressure on the EU to translate words into action," he said.

Dr Muscat was speaking in Tel Aviv after visiting the Weizmann Institute.

He noted that all he had heard in the past days from the EU were words.

"Throughout my visit here [Israel] I have not stopped receiving calls on migration. We have another boat that may have to be brought to Malta. This phenomenon won't go away."

 

 

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