A Maltese patrol boat rescued a group of 85 migrants late on Friday night and will bring them to Malta on Saturday morning, the Armed Forces said.
The migrants,believed to be from North and Eastern Africa, were in a sinking wooden boat,the army said.
Malta hasspearheaded EU efforts to share migrants rescued in the central Mediterraneanamong several member states after rescue ships were refused entry by Italy.
The latest caseinvolved the NGO rescue ship Alan Kurdi which picked up 60 migrants and afterbeing refused entry in Italy was allowed to disembark the migrants at Malta onApril 13 so that they could be shared between Germany, France, Portugal andLuxembourg.
The European Union's Commissioner responsible for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, visited Malta on Tuesday and praised the island for its response to irregular migration across the Mediterranean.
"Without adoubt, Malta is facing great migration challenges compared to the size of thepopulation," Avramopoulos said.
"Overall, atthe EU level we have returned to pre-crisis levels of irregular arrivals, butin Malta arrivals increased in 2018 due to search and rescue operations in theMediterranean and the volatile and precarious situation in Libya."
Malta took in 108migrants in March after its soldiers stormed a small tanker which authoritiessay had been hijacked by three teenagers, one from Ivory Coast and two fromGuinea, who tried to force the boat to take them to Malta and not back to Libyaafter it had rescued them and other migrants.
The three are nowin a Maltese juvenile jail awaiting trial. They have pleaded not guilty.
Another group of 87 migrants were also rescued by a Maltese patrol boat and brought to Malta later that month.
