Five women and a man claiming to be Somali were brought to Malta for medical assistance late on Saturday night.

The refugees were rescued from a dinghy by an Armed Forces of Malta patrol boat.

The dinghy was carrying 66 migrants, the rest of whom refused assistance and continued on their way towards mainland Europe.

Earlier this week a similar situation developed when the AFM rescued three women and a baby from a boat while the rest of their group – about 40 – carried on towards to Italy.

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.