A dinghy carrying 86 illegal immigrants was towed to land yesterday morning by the Armed Forces of Malta after it was spotted during an air patrol some 14 nautical miles to the southwest of Malta.

The AFM’s operation centre immediately diverted a boat to the area where it was established that the dinghy was adrift without any way of manoeuvring.

On board were 74 men and 12 women, four of whom claimed to be pregnant.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.