A police statement said 22 people suspected to be illegal immigrants were spotted by police in St Paul’s Street in Munxar at around 11.30pm on Saturday evening. The group were taken to the Munxar police station and preliminary investigations revealed that they had arrived some time before on board a boat.

Investigations led the police to a 20-foot fibreglass boat abandoned in the vicinity of the Xlendi tower in Gozo, where the male illegal immigrants had landed. Three other illegal immigrants who arrived on

the same boat were apprehended at around 1.45am. Investigations are being carried out by immigration police.