Criminal inquiry into latest migrant influx

A criminal investigation into human trafficking will be carried out in connection with last Sunday's influx of illegal migrants, especially since the boat carrying some 200 migrants appeared to have had a master mariner, Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday.

The minister was replying to a series of questions in Parliament by Nationalist MP Mario Galea.

He said that other police investigations in connection with human trafficking were already taking place. Clearly there was a criminal organisation behind the transport of migrants, probably based in the countries where they started off.

This was confirmed by the fact that there was a pattern in the way the migrants turned up off Malta, he said. While last Sunday's arrival was an exception, most migrants arrived in groups of between 26-29 on boats with the same type of engine.

It was also suspected that the migrants might be starting their journey from North Africa on large ships and transferred to smaller boats at the edge of the Malta rescue zone. One group of migrants had even arrived in Malta on a rubber dinghy, albeit a strong one.

It had not, however, been proved neither by the Maltese nor by the Italian police that such transfers at sea were going on.

Dr Borg told Anglu Farrugia (MLP) that Maltese police officers had been to Libya as part of their investigations. There had been no joint investigations with the Libyan police so far, but this would be the subject of talks between the two countries.

British investigators would be helping the Malta police in their investigations.

The minister also said in reply to other questions by Mr Galea that the Maltese armed forces only escorted to Malta those refugees who were in distress or who requested assistance. The AFM did not intervene when boats passed near Malta without requesting assistance or when they were not in distress.

Replying to questions by Leo Brincat (MLP), Dr Borg said a considerable number of migrants whose application for refugee status was turned down had worked in Libya for several years. Such people, clearly, could not be considered as refugees. Legislation was now being tightened so that applications for refugee status which were manifestly unfounded or frivolous could be dismissed and the applicants deported immediately.

The minister also said in reply to a question by Gavin Gulia (MLP) that 1,437 migrants are in detention, of whom 652 are being held at Safi Barracks, 609 at Lyster Barracks, 97 at police headquarters and 79 at Ta' Kandja police quarters.