Migrants brought in on Thursday insist they want to go to Italy

A number of migrants who were brought to Malta yesterday, offered some resistance when they were taken to the Safi detention centre, insisting that they wanted to go to Italy.

Yesterday afternoon 129 migrants were brought to Malta, after a 24-hour ordeal at sea, in which they were rescued from a dinghy in the rough seas by a US Navy ship and later transferred to an AFM patrol boat.

In the evening, some of the migrants reportedly caused disturbance at the Safi detention camp where they were taken following their 24-hour ordeal - protesting that they wanted to be sent to Italy.

Sources said the commotion started some migrants objected to being held at detention centre.

As is the case with most of the migrants who reach our shores, the persons who were brought in yesterday were promised to be taken to Italy after paying a fortune to smugglers in Libya.

The Police Rapid Intervention Unit was called to Safi after the migrants started throwing objects at at detention officers. However, the commotion only lasted an hour as calm was restored by the detention officers by 9pm, sources said.

The 129 migrants brought in yesterday afternoon at first claimed to be Somalis, however following initial interviews it resulted that the all-male group included 70 persons from Gambia, 36 from Senegal, two from Nigeria, 3 from Sierra Leone, one from Guinea, six from Guinea-Bissau, 10 from Mali and one from Burkina Faso. One of the migrants required medical attention and was referred to Mater Dei Hospital.

The migrants who were in distress 55 miles south of Malta arrived in Malta - the closest safe port of call - following an operation coordinated by the Armed Forces of Malta.

This week, a state of emergency was declared in Sicily and the island of Lampedusa was declared unsafe because of the influx of migrants over the past few weeks. However, Italy also announced increased patrols in the Mediterranean following the deaths of hundreds of migrants sailing in overcrowded boats.

On Friday, at least 33 people died when their boat capsized between Malta and Lampedusa, however the death toll could rise to 200. Eight days earlier, more than 350 migrants died in another shipwreck off Lampedusa, one of the deadliest such incidents in recent years.

Since the beginning of the year, Malta has almost 2,000 migrants reached Malta, while 35,085 migrants reached Italy's coasts with 73% meeting the legal criteria for asylum.