Malta to attend Med. summit on immigration

Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami is expected to join nine western Mediterranean leaders at a summit aimed at tackling the problem of illegal immigration in the region, government sources confirmed.

The summit, to take place in Tunis, will study a possible "migrants contract" between the 10 countries.

The meeting, set for December 5-6 and hosted by Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, is expected to be attended by the heads of government of France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. North Africa will be represented by the leaders of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and the king of Morocco.

French diplomatic sources told Reuters they believed the Tunis summit would be a ground-breaking event which could lead to the eventual signing of a sort of "migrants contract" by the 10 countries covering aspects of both legal and illegal immigration.

"France wants to make it a very significant summit," one source said. French President Jacques Chirac is expected to pay an official visit to Tunisia ahead of the summit.

"The Tunis meeting will help promote the need for a very strong dialogue between Europe and the Maghreb on immigration," French junior minister Nicole Ameline told reporters. She was in Rabat to take part in the second ministerial conference on immigration of the west Mediterranean countries, an informal forum of the so-called five-plus-five dialogue.

The fight against illegal immigration is becoming a top priority for a number of EU member states, particularly Italy and Spain, as well as Malta.

The issue of illegal immigration in Malta this week took a different twist after statements by Alvaro Gil-Robles, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human rights, on the detention of asylum seekers here.

Mr Gil-Robles refrained from saying whether Malta was breaching human rights, telling journalists to "wait and see".

"In comparison with your prisons, the detention centres in Malta are shocking. This is an area which needs urgent action," he said.

Dozens of illegal immigrants drowned in three recent incidents off Italy, highlighting the gravity of the constant flood of immigrants across the Mediterranean basin. Spain, the European country closest to Africa, last week detained about 550 Africans trying to reach the country in 12 rickety boats mostly across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Dr Fenech Adami will also be taking part in two other summits in December: the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Nigeria and the EU leaders' summit in Brussels, which could be crucial as far as the Intergovernmental Conference is concerned.