Confusion reigned supreme yesterday week when a number of irregular migrants that were planned to be flown from Malta on a special flight could not be found, Paul Cachia reported on di-ve.com.

While an Air Malta aircraft with extra crew for the long flight was kept waiting on the tarmac for hours, frantic checks by members of the Armed Forces of Malta at the Hal Far tent village could not determine and single out those irregular immigrants from Mali that were supposed to be on the flight to the African country’s capital city Bamako.

Although the “top secret” flight had been planned at least five days before, when members of the Police Force escort team arrived at the Hal Far detention centre only three Mali irregular migrants were identified.

At least another eight Mali migrants were supposed to be on the special flight chartered by the Maltese authorities from Air Malta at a cost of around e40,000 (Lm17,172).

While the soldiers used all kinds of tricks, including offers of free cigarettes, the individual migrants could not be picked out from among the hundreds of irregular immigrants being kept in detention at Hal Far, as the soldiers and police had no documentation or means of identification to pick up the Mali men.

Luckily enough, an irregular migrant was picked up on the road close to Hal Far and found to be one of the migrants who were supposed to be on the flight to Mali.

As the Air Malta aircraft could not wait any longer – given that the crew could not exceed their duty hours on the aircraft – it was eventually decided that the flight should go ahead with only four irregular migrants on board.

At least 12 policemen and a police officer accompanied the four migrants on the flight. However, a number of policemen who had been on duty on the flight as escorts were sent back home as there was no need for a larger force.

The flight took off from Malta about four hours late and landed at Bamako airport without further incident late at night. The four immigrants were then turned over to Mali immigration officers who had boarded the plane to take them down.

The empty aircraft was refuelled before it departed for Malta, where it landed in the early hours of Sunday morning.