(changes total to 110)

An Italian naval patrol craft has started landing in Malta a group of 85 illegal immigrants found crammed on a boat this morning, while a Maltese patrol boat is on the way back after taking on board 25 migrants rescued by a Maltese trawler. The patrol boat has also recovered three bodies, including one of a pregnant woman.

Informed sources said the group of 86 was found by the Fenice during a Frontex patrol in the Libyan search and rescue region but it was eventually decided that they should be brought to Malta for reasons of security and hygiene on board the vessel. The patrol craft arrived off Grand Harbour late this morning and the migrants are being brought to Malta in groups of 10.

Meanwhile the trawler Laura II rescued a group of 25 migrants late yesterday 51 miles south-west of Malta. The migrants were then transferred to a patrol boat, which also recovered the three corpses from the sea. The patrol boat is due in Malta later today.

A boat carrying 27 illegal migrants arrived in Malta yesterday morning at Sliema, just 12 hours after another boat arrived at Xlendi with a similar number.

Picture: A pregnant migrant is helped ashore this morning. Picture: Alfred Azzopardi, AFM.

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