Plans for swift repatriation to Egypt

A total of 158 of the 162 illegal immigrants caught off Sicily after they were given assistance by the Armed Forces of Malta will be flown to Malta this afternoon, sources said yesterday.

Malta had initially resisted Italy's request to take them back, arguing that a 2001 agreement with Italy did not apply in this case.

Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said when contacted yesterday the government had taken a political decision after learning that four of the immigrants were being detained by Italy for further investigation on suspicion they may have been involved in running the operation.

"We did not want to appear to be participating in illegal immigration, hence we accepted to take them back," Dr Borg said.

"The fact is that most of the immigrants appear to be Egyptians and Malta has very good relations with Egypt so it would not be difficult to repatriate them practically immediately," he added.

Some 151 of the 158 being sent to Malta today are believed to be Egyptians. They had initially told Italian police they were Palestinians.

Dr Borg said the Italian government would be footing the bill to send the migrants to Malta but the Maltese government would then have to bear the costs of sending them on to Egypt. "We would have had to pay this ourselves had the migrants landed here in the first instance," he said.

The immigrants' boat had been encountered by a Gozitan fisherman on September 9. He noticed it was drifting and towed it to within half a mile of Marsalforn.

Army patrol boats went to the scene but the immigrants refused to land in Malta. They requested food and fuel, which was given to them, and resumed their journey. They were later intercepted some 35 miles off Pozzallo by the Guardia di Finanza.

The Italian government subsequently lodged a protest with the foreign ministry, insisting that Malta should take the immigrants back as they had left from Maltese territory.

The Maltese government initially maintained that the immigrants had not actually landed in Malta, so the agreement did not apply as it did not cover those people who passed through territorial waters.