A statement said that at around 1.30am, the AFM were informed by a Maltese fishing trawler that an 18-foot white boat full of illegal immigrants had been sighted around six miles to the east of Marsascala.

AFM Patrol Boat P 24 and AFM Search and Rescue (SAR) Boat Melita II were immediately dispatched to the area.

At around 2.25am the AFM units sighted the boat carrying the illegal immigrants which was drifting due to engine failure.

The immigrants – five children, three women and 22 men – were taken on board the P24 and Melita II and disembarked at the AFM Maritime Squadron base at Haywharf .

They were handed over to the police for further investigations and accommodated at Safi Barracks.

At noon on Tuesday the AFM received a call from a local fishing vessel, Roberta, that was next to a drifting boat with approximately 20 to 25 people on board. Both vessels were 63 nautical miles south-southeast of Malta.

The Maltese fishing boat was instructed to remain on scene until the AFM took over. The AFM Patrol Boat P52 arrived on site at about 6pm, taking on board the 22 migrants, three of whom were women.

The Patrol Boat entered Hay Wharf at around 10.30pm on Tuesday. The migrants were transferred onto a bus and conveyed to the police headquarters for screening, photography, finger printing and medical care. Three women were taken to St Luke’s Hospital.

The rest of the immigrants, 19 men, were conveyed to Safi barracks just after midnight. Two women are still in hospital under police custody, while the third woman was released and joined other illegal immigrants at Safi.

Patrol boat personnel boarded the migrants’ boat, carrying two women and 21 men, at around 12.30pm, after a three-hour search and rescue operation.

The migrants are all claiming to be Somali nationals.

The operation started in the morning at 9.30am after the AFM control tower received a report that a white boat in difficulty at sea a few miles southwest of Malta.

The boat had been spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft, which relayed its coordinates to the control tower, which in turn dispatched the patrol boats.

Immigration police were informed about the case and an investigation is being carried out. The migrants were given a medical examination and were transferred to Safi barracks.