A second boatload of illegal migrants arrived in Malta this evening.

The boat, which like the first one was located south off Birzebbugia, carried 26 people, six of them women, one of whom needed hospital treatment.

The first boat, escorted to shore by an AFM patrol boat in the afternoon, carried 27 migrants, including seven women.

The migrants in the first boat claimed to have been at sea for five days having cast off from Libya. They claimed they were Somalis.

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