The Armed Forces of Malta said that earlier this afternoon at around 2.00pm, the French maritime rescue co-ordination centre (MRCC) at La Garde informed the Armed Forces of Malta’s Operations Centre at Luqa Barracks, that a French naval vessel had encountered a 60-foot long vessel to the East of Malta. Said vessel was reported to have onboard some 200 Somali third-country nationals, amongst whom there were around 100 women and children.

An AFM Air Wing helicopter was scrambled into the air to investigate the report.

The French naval vessel “La Meuse” was escorting the migrants’ boat in a position some 12 nautical miles from Malta, and made a mid-sea rendezvous with the AFM Maritime Squadron’s Austal-class patrol vessel P-21.

The Maltese seamen reported back that the migrants onboard were not feeling well, since they had drank seawater and requested to enter Malta. The migrants’ boat is under escort by P-21 and is expected at Haywharf Base at circa 18.30hrs.

In the meantime, simultaneously to all this another boat laden with some 300 other migrants was reported in Dahhlet Qorrot in Gozo for which patrolboat P-51 was dispatched to investigate. The migrants escorted by AFM patrol-boat p-32 and berthed at around 1745hrs at Haywharf Base.

Permalink: Migrants from war-torn Libya arrive in Malta this afternoon