Number of illegal immigrants at 12-month low

The number of illegal immigrants currently in Malta was at a 12-month low, Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday.

He said this had been made possible by a repatriation programme and the processing of hundreds of applications for refugee or humanitarian status.

There are currently 560 people in detention who have not applied for a refugee status or are still waiting for their appliction to be processed.

Dr Borg was replying to a statement by Labour home affairs spokesman Gavin Gulia, who had urged the government to make representations in order to benefit from assistance provided through international conventions on illegal immigration.

Dr Borg replied that it was the European Union which had the structures and funds that could assist Malta, through sharing the problem. Dr Gulia had always opposed joining the EU, he added.

Malta could take part in the EU's European Refugee Fund when it became a member next year.

Besides, the Council of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs, where Malta was an observer, was working continuously to control the problem of illegal immigration.

The work included negotiations to reach re-admission agreements with countries from where illegal immigrants originated.

In his statement, Dr Gulia had also criticised the conditions at the Floriana detention centre.

But Dr Borg said that the recent "protests" by illegal immigrants were not over conditions but because they wanted freedom - something they could not be given if the government wanted to control the problem of illegal immigration.

The government was doing its utmost to give protection to those who deserved it, but those who did not would be repatriated.

In a reply to the minister's statement, Dr Gulia insisted that more than 100 illegal immigrants were being kept in very small rooms (85 by 25 feet) at the Floriana detention centre, and he challenged the minister to go to the centre with journalists to see these rooms.

He said the government should not wait until Malta became a member of the EU to seek international assistance when this could be immediately provided by the United Nations, through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.