A group of 32 Somali men who complained at Hamrun police station that they had been evicted from Marsa open centre were free to return because they had never been sent away, the director of the agency responsible for the welfare of migrants said this afternoon.

The men are all migrants, told the police this morning that they had been evicted from the open centre for no known reason. They said they arrived in Malta over the past year.

One of them told timesofmalta.com that they did not know where they would sleep, and they were appealing for help.

However, when contacted, Alex Tortell, director of AWAS said there had been a misunderstanding and the migrants were free to return to the Marsa centre.

Ahmed Bougre, director of the centre, said there had been problems stemming from vandalism caused to newly-installed toilets and kitchens.  He said that following complaints from other residents, he had fined some of these Somalis €10 each after the discovery of a broken toilet.

Matters came to a head this morning and he had an argument with one of the Somalis who disobeyed orders to clean up a toilet he had dirtied. The other Somalis backed up their colleague.

Mr Tortell said the migrants were never told to leave.