Updated 4 pm.

A baby girl was delivered on a patrol boat as the AFM rescued a group of migrants last night.

The woman, believed to be Somali, gave birth on P51 as a group of 25 migrants was rescued from a dinghy some 56 miles south-west of Malta last night. Mother and child are currently being cared for at Mater Dei Hospital.

Meanwhile, another woman said she miscarried during the trip on the dinghy, which the migrants claimed started three days ago from Tunisia (officials said they believe the trip actually started from Libya).

The two women were among 25 migrants picked up by the patrol boat, which brought them to Malta early this morning. Other members of the group also needed medical attention, with one of them being carried from the patrol boat to a waiting ambulance on a stretcher.

Another 43 migrants from the same group were picked up by the Italian cargo ship Verona and brought to Malta Freeport this afternoon.

The search for the migrants started on Friday when the alert was raised by a foreigner resident in Malta. A Maltese patrol boat and an AFM aircraft were involved, as well as a PC-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft of the US Air Force based at Sigonella. The US aircraft located the dinghy at about 11 p.m. yesterday. 

This was the first group of migrants to arrive this year.