Malta receives 60 rescued migrants in first arrivals in months

Migrants rescued by a merchant vessel cover themselves with emergency blankets as they disembark from a Malta Armed Forces patrol boat outside Marsaxlokk, Malta April 17, 2023. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Sixty migrants who were rescued from two boats in the central Mediterranean landed in Malta on Monday in the biggest arrival of migrants on the island for months, eyewitnesses said.

The migrants were picked up by a merchant ship between Malta and Libya following instructions by Malta's rescue authorities.