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Maltese patrol boat transfers 230 migrants to Sicily

Xinhua, September 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Armed Forces of Malta's largest patrol boat P61 brought some 230 migrants to a Sicilian harbor in Italy on Tuesday evening, according to local report.

After assisting in a rescue operation inside Libya's search and rescue region, an Italian Navy boat originally picked up the migrants and then transferred them to P61.

The rescue was part of the EU-mandated Operation Triton.

Two weeks ago, Maltese Minister for Home Affairs and National Security Carmelo Abela revealed that the archipelago has an informal agreement with Italy that all migrants saved in the central Mediterranean would be disembarked in Italy, but later the minister backtracked and clarified that there was no informal agreement with Italy on immigration, only accentuated that Italy and Malta had been "collaborating closely" for the past few years to make sure that people are saved at sea.

According to a report released by the archipelago's National Statistics Office this June, a total of 569 irregular immigrants were brought to Maltese shores in 2014, a decrease of 71.7 percent comparing with the preceding year of 2013.

A total of 93 migrants were so far brought to Malta this year, according to local report. Endit