Migrants land in M’Scala as high powered delegation arrives to assess situation in Malta
Karl Stagno-Navarra After almost two months of relative lull, Malta yesterday experienced its first arrival of illegal migrants this summer, as 28 Somalis found their way to shore in St. Thomas Bay in Marsascala.
The migrants - including eight women - were reportedly to be in good health and well stocked in food and water supplies. They arrived on a 13 foot boat with an outboard engine. A satellite phone was also found in one of the migrants’ possession.
While the police arrested the migrants and took them for identification before transferring them to the Safi detention centre, the Armed Forces were until late yesterday afternoon on the look-out for another migrant boat with 16 migrants. who reportedly telephoned the Palermo Coast Guard saying that they were in distress at approximately 20 miles south of Delimara.
A search in the area was later abandoned, as no boats were found.
Meanwhile illegal immigration is high on the agenda of a high-powered delegation of the Italian Parliament, led by Margherita Boniver and arriving in Malta tomorrow.
Boniver, who heads the Parlaimentary Commission for the implementation of the Schengen Agreement and Vigilance on Europol and Immigration Control will be accompanied by 17 Senators and MP’s who form part of the Commission.
During their two-day stay, the Italian MP’s will meet Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg and Speaker Louis Galea, and Mario Debattista, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry for Home Affairs and Justice in the absence of Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici who is away on government business.
The delegation, that also includes a number of journalists from major Italian newspapers, will also visit the detention and open centres in Hal Far, and meetings are to be held with OIWAS director Alex Tortell and representatives from Medicins sans frontiers (Msf).
Other meetings will be held with Katrine Camilleri, Deputy Director at the Jesuit Refugee Service and Mons Philip Calleja from the Emigrants Commission.
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