Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday that in terms of a treaty between Malta and Italy on the repatriation of illegal immigrants, Malta was obliged to accept back migrants who would would have left for Italy from Malta's "land area" and "internal waters."

Replying to parliamentary questions by Dr Gavin Gulia (MLP) on the repatriation of illegal immigrants from Italy on Monday, the minister said that the treaty excluded territorial waters. There had been some who had wished to include "territorial waters" in the treaty, he said, but Malta had objected. Indeed, Malta had only wanted to specify "land area", and "internal waters" was included as a compromise.

In terms of the treaty Malta had not been obliged to take back the immigrants but agreed to do so on the basis of a political decision. With most of the immigrants being Egyptian, their repatriation to Egypt was not expected to be a problem.

Dr Borg said the decision to help the migrants when they were close to Malta was taken on the spot by AFM personnel.