A hoax call to the airport control tower warning that escaped immigrants had entered the airport perimeter wall briefly halted operations at the airport yesterday, forcing the diversion of a flight from Frankfurt to Palermo.

The call was made to the control towerat around 10 a.m., shortly before an Air Malta chartered plane was to depart carrying 35 irregular immigrants to back to Ghana.

The operation was delayed for some time by the call, which forced the closure of the runway while airport officials and soldiers conducted a search, which yielded negative results. The call, it turned out, was a hoax.

A Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt was diverted to Palermo as a consequence of the airport closure. The chartered flight was 80 per cent funded by the EU. Aboard, the Ghanaians were accompanied by some 70 policemen as well as a doctor and a nurse.

The migrants had their request for asylum considered inadmissible by the Refugee Commissioner and their appeals were dismissed since Ghana is considered a safe country.

Most of them arrived last year and hadbeen held in detention. The deportation was organised by the police force and the Home Affairs Ministry.

Another operation yesterday saw 25 migrants of several nationalities leaving for the US under a US government programme.

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