The already overstretched organisations that handle illegal immigrants breathed a sight of relief yesterday when the boat with 200 illegal immigrants, which for a day and a night had been close to Malta, bypassed it completely and carried on to Lampedusa where it was intercepted by a Guardia di Finanza patrol boat.

Meanwhile, the cruise ship which rescued 14 African migrants from rough seas and brought them to Malta resumed its cruise early yesterday, heading for the port of Barcelona, giving Sardinia, its next stop a miss because of the delay incurred bringing the migrants to Malta.

The Dutch ship Jules Verne, chartered by Vision Cruises of Alicante, Spain, interrupted an eight-day cruise on Friday to pluck the migrants out of the water some 60 miles south of Malta.

It also escorted the other boat with some 220 people believed to be African migrants until a Maltese coast guard vessel was able to take charge.

The Jules Verne, which can carry 550 passengers, dropped the migrants off in Valletta’s Grand Harbour some 13 hours later than scheduled. They were received by Malta's immigration police and detained.

Some illegal immigrants, suffering from dehydration, were airlifted to Malta while 12 others, nine men and three women, were cared for in the ship’s sick quarters. The ship also picked up the corpses of a baby and a man from the sea and helped search for more missing persons, to no avail.

This was the ship’s first cruise in the Mediterranean, and, as such, it was rather unprepared for this crisis. However, according to a ship official who spoke to the Spanish press, although there was some nervousness at the beginning, all turned out well at the end. The majority of the ship’s passengers were reported to have appreciated what happened and agreed that the ship had to give humanitarian help.