Children wearing bright orange life vests waved at cameras and journalists on shore as they came into Hay Wharf aboard an armed forces boat that had helped rescue them and their families yesterday.

The “unusually large number of children” – more than 30, including a six-month-old boy in need of medical assistance – were among the 257 migrants who were brought in yesterday in the largest migrant landing of the year so far.

The migrants – who claimed to be from Palestine, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Senegal – are believed to have left from Libya.

The AFM picked up their distress signal and coordinated the rescue operation with the assistance of a merchant vessel that took them on board until the AFM arrived and transferred the migrants into three boats. The rescue took place within Malta’s search and rescue area.

The first to arrive were three adults, a little girl and a six-month-old boy belonging to the same family. They were ferried in at about 4.45pm aboard a fast launch since the baby needed medical attention for a fever. The child was taken to hospital.

A young migrant sits in a police bus after arriving at Hay Wharf on an AFM boat (right) yesterday evening.

Later, at about 7pm, two larger AFM boats arrived at Hay Wharf. One carried 147 people: 22 children, 48 women and 77 men. The other boat had 105 migrants aboard, including about 10 more children.

As they walked off the boats and into police buses, some waved and smiled at the cameras. Families huddled together as they made their way on to the unfamiliar shore, some holding hands to ensure they were not separated.

Others shied away from the media attention, covering their faces.

Yesterday’s arrivals brought the total landings so far this year to 565 migrants – a drastic drop from the average of 1,400 annual landings recorded since 2003. A total of 2,008 landed in Malta last year.

According to the UN refugee agency, the smallest number of arrivals since 2010 – when Italy adopted a controversial push-back policy – has been the result of the Italian government’s migrant rescue operation Mare Nostrum.

The policy was eventually declared by the European Court of Human Rights to be in breach of the right to seek asylum.

On Wednesday the European Commission announced that the EU’s border agency Frontex will be launching an anti-illegal migration mission in the Mediterranean, called Frontex Plus, as from November.