Updated 4.20pm, adds migrants' arrival

A group of 64 migrants arrived in Malta on Thursday afternoon after being picked up from a boat in the island's rescue region.

The small boat was intercepted by a patrol boat late on Wednesday. The migrants are all men and in relatively good health, an Armed Forces of Malta spokesman said.   

Malta has seen a surge of migrant arrivals in the past few weeks, the most recent arrivals being last Sunday when a group of 37 was brought in.

Nearly 400 migrants were brought to Malta on June 5 after four simultaneous rescues. A group of 75 migrants were found stranded on a tuna pen on May 29.

A total of 216 were brought in on May 25 after being rescued in two operations after 85 were brought in two weeks earlier.

The number of migrants arriving in Malta by boat skyrocketed last year following unrest in Libya, with the number reaching 1,455 last year compared to 23 in 2017.

Almost a quarter of the arrivals were children (23 per cent), with 65 per cent of those arrivals being unaccompanied minors, data provided by immigration police showed.

The surge comes after Italy's right-wing deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini closed Italian waters to NGO rescue vessels, leaving several boats stranded at sea for weeks.

According to data from the UN International Organisation for Migration about 3,200 people have reached Italy and Malta from north Africa since the beginning of 2019. Almost 350 have died en route. The death rate for those crossing along the central Mediterranean route stands at about 11%.