A group of families who crossed the Mediterranean in search of asylum have been relocated to Germany, the Home Affairs Ministry said on Friday. 

The ministry said the migrant families, mainly women and children, were relocated through a process coordinated with the European Commission and in line with a pledge by various member states to relocate migrants who landed in Malta.

People relocated will now have their asylum claims processed in Germany. 

The Home Affairs Ministry did not say how many people were relocated, where the families originated from or when they had first reached Malta. 

Ministry officials, national security and law enforcement officials, police, and officials from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) were all involved in the relocation process, which is co-financed by EU emergency assistance under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

Malta is at the heart of the EU's irregular migration crisis and receives more asylum claims than most other EU member states. 

Civil society organisations that work to rescue migrants at sea often note that Maltese authorities ignore their distress calls and do not communicate with them. Questions about asylum seekers caught in Maltese waters are generally ignored by authorities.