Last night, 45 irregular immigrants were escorted to shore in a rubber dinghy by the Armed Forces of Malta

The AFM said that yesterday morning its Operations Centre at Luqa Barracks was informed by Italian authorities that a rubber dinghy with about 45 persons on board was reported adrift by an Italian fishing vessel.

An AFM Islander was dispatched to the area to monitor the situation, patrol boat P51 was in turn deployed to proceed to 80 nautical miles south of Malta to rescue the migrants at sea. The patrol boat arrived on scene at 5.50pm and took the migrants on board and brought them to shore last night.