The Armed Forces were in for a busy day when they were first called into action on Monday night when Rome’s radar station informed Malta that a small boat with illegal immigrants aboard was drifting some 60 nautical miles off the southeast of Malta. Patrol Boat P51 was dispatched to the scene and an Armed Forces Islander aircraft was scrambled from Luqa to locate the vessel.

The people aboard the craft were rescued and brought to Malta. There were 16 men and two woman aboard, all claiming to be Somalis. During the operation, two more craft with illegal immigrants aboard were spotted, one by the AFM and another by a commercial vessel, but since they could proceed under their own power, the contacts were lost and could not be re-established.

Meanwhile, at 7.30am yesterday, a 17-foot twin-engined motor launch pulled into Marsaxlokk Bay. Police were immediately informed and a Mobile Squad and ALE officials rushed to the scene, where 17 additional Somalis were rounded up and taken into custody.

The day only got busier for the AFM after a further 17 illegal clandestine immigrants were intercepted off the coast of Xghajra huddled aboard a small boat in the early afternoon. They were escorted to the Maritime Squadron headquarters at Hay Wharf in Pieta.

That was not the end of the story after a Maltese flagged vessel, the MV Noda Star, contacted the Maltese Port authorities to tell them that it had come across a vessel in distress. The ship’s skipper subsequently took the decision to rescue the 21 north Africans aboard the stranded vessel. The vessel, a tanker, pulled closer to the Grand Harbour where patrol boat P51, Melita I and a dinghy were dispatched to ferry the illegal immigrants back to the Maritime Squadron base.

Health and preliminary police checks were carried out on all the immigrants on their arrival in Malta and all were found to be in good health. They were then distributed between the police and the AFM for detention until repatriation or they apply for refugee status. The exact identities and nationalities of the illegal immigrants are not yet known.

The AFM could not say whether more immigrants were expected to arrive in Malta through

the night.