A group of around 70 migrants were brought to Malta on Tuesday after being rescued south of the island during the night.

A Home Affairs Ministry spokesperson confirmed the news when contacted by The Malta Independent, but gave no further details.

The news comes as the number of migrant departures from North African shores has increased significantly in recent days, possibly owing to the onset of good weather again.

So far, Italy is facing the brunt of the arrivals, with 2,100 migrants arriving in Lampedusa in the space of 24 hours over the past weekend.

Among those arriving on Lampedusa since Sunday were Somali, Eritrean, Sudanese and Bangladeshi migrants, U.N. refugee agency officials said.

Malta has not faced anywhere near the same pressure in recent days, with this being the first significant arrival of the past days.

The Maltese government has continually insisted that Malta is “full up” and that European countries need to bear their fair share of migrants coming from the African continent.

The government has said that it will continue to carry out rescues when migrants are in imminent danger of death in Maltese waters. 

Last summer, it resorted to housing migrants on tourist boats at the edge of Maltese waters in a stand-off with other European countries which dragged itself out for a month or so.