Forty-five persons are being held in detention after they were found to be staying or working in Malta illegally, the police said.

Twenty were arrested during raids in Qormi and Marsa on Saturday while the rest were held after raids in Paceville and St Julian's earlier in the week.

The migrants are from Nigeria, Ghana, Syria, Gambia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Togo, Turkey and India.

Arrangements are being made for their repatriation. 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.