Home Affairs Minister pushes for 'burden sharing' in EU

Illegal immigration will top the agenda in a meeting scheduled for February 23 between Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini.

Speaking to The Times, Dr Borg said illegal immigration will be the main topic of his first meeting with Mr Frattini since he became commissioner. Mr Frattini will probably reciprocate the visit with a trip to Malta later this year, Dr Borg said.

Malta has been trying to raise the profile of the illegal immigration issue within the EU for some time. "Unless the EU heeds the complaints being aired by the peripheral states, controversial unilateral action would be taken by individual countries rather than a concerted action being taken by the EU as a whole," Dr Borg said.

"There is a feeling that where illegal immigration is concerned, there is a lot of burden shifting rather than burden sharing. I have made this argument within the EU and will bring it up again at the meeting.

"Countries feel they are being left to cope on their own. Malta is one of those countries patiently striving to persuade other countries that there are EU states that need help to resettle a number of immigrants and to repatriate others. This is an uphill task," Dr Borg said.

He said the hundreds of immigrants who arrived here within a short span of time posed particular problems in terms of coping with them because of the small size of the island. "A boat with 30 persons on board is the equivalent of 3,000 arriving in Sicily. Figures show that only one in four migrants who go to Italy actually stay there.

"Many of the immigrants that come to Malta do not want to remain here but because Malta has the highest acceptance rate of immigrants in Europe and we have a high population density we need assistance to resettle a number of them," Dr Borg said.

The minister argued that the issue of resettlement was not something that only Malta was highlighting.

"Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, recently pointed out that responsibility-sharing arrangements have to be drawn up to cater for those rescued or intercepted at sea. He argued one needs to find durable solutions, including through resettlement, which is what Malta also feels should be the case."

Following the national conference on irregular immigration last week, a national policy would be drawn up.

"I know that not everyone will agree with having a detention policy but the government will stick to it. We might shorten the detention period but when you realise that huge countries such as Australia and the US have detention policies for immigration I do not see why a tiny island such as Malta should not have one," Dr Borg said.

"We have done a lot but more needs to be done. We have cut down the time that immigrants are held in detention. No one can be detained for more than 18 months if one's case is still being considered. There are EU countries that repatriate immigrants when their appeal is still pending.

"Some 90 per cent of the cases are dealt with within four or five months. Most of those who are still in detention beyond six months are those who have lost their case and appealed. Some would have even lost the appeal.

"Trouble at detention centres is not caused by new arrivals but by those who have lost their case or their appeal.

"I know it sounds cruel, but we cannot be generous with those who have no case and have to be sent back. As I said, Malta has the highest acceptance rate and those who criticise us never bring this point up," Dr Borg said.

He said a clear issue which emerged at the conference and which has to be tackled is the need for a common policy on detention centres. Some are under the army's wing and others that of the police. "We shall now have a small working group formed between the government, the opposition and NGOs working with immigrants to draw up a common policy."

There are currently 500 people in detention centres and 900 in open centres, while another 100 have been released without status as they had been in detention for a year-and-a-half.

"If we have more waves of immigrants, we will get more of them on the streets and there could be problems unless they can be resettled elsewhere in Europe," Dr Borg said.

"So far there has been no international terrorism, criminality or health problems associated with immigrants, so there is no cause for alarm about the immigrants living in Malta. But the argument we are pushing at EU level is that we can only cater for a limited number because of the limitations imposed by the size of our country."

Asked whether action would be taken against anyone passing racist comments publicly, Dr Borg said one had to distinguish between "mistaken opinions and racism".

"I have given the police extremely clear instructions that action has to be taken against those who cross that fine line and incite racial hatred. But one has to be careful as something can easily become popular if it is prohibited.

"One would have to prove that an expression is not just an erroneous opinion but that there is the criminal intent of inciting racial hatred," Dr Borg added.