Malta has started processing the asylum applications of 61 migrants who arrived late on Sunday following a rescue operation.
The migrants, including an unconscious man who is being treated at Mater Dei Hospital, were the latest to be picked up by Maltese authorities after their boat was deemed to be in distress.
The overcrowded dinghy had been drifting at sea for several hours on Saturday after the engine had stalled. The boat was also showing signs of deflation, the authorities said.
A government spokesman said the migrants would be processed here as they were now the island’s responsibility in line with international law.
They will likely be detained for several months as their asylum applications are processed.

Italy’s right-wing Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini uploaded a picture of the migrants’ boat on his Twitter feed last weekend.
The photograph, taken from an aircraft, showed the male migrants packed into the dinghy.
Tension over the ongoing migration crisis was at a high this weekend as Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli called for EU sanctions against Malta accusing it of failing to pick up migrants as they transited through the island’s rescue…