Labour will join common front '...but only if kept on board'

The Labour Party would be ready to join in a common front with the government in its effort to persuade the international community to help Malta deal with the problem of irregular immigration but the opposition has to be kept on board at all times and not only when it suits the government, Gavin Gulia, the party's main spokesman on home affairs, said yesterday.

Despite the cooperation that exists in this area the opposition had been left completely in the dark over the past two months despite the difficult situation, he said.

"Neither have we been given an update on what's going on with the central command unit set up recently at the detention centres," he stressed.

"I would have expected the minister to convene the committee on irregular immigration to discuss the situation and certainly to discuss the amendments to the law tabled in Parliament on Monday." The amendments proposed affect both the refugee and immigration act regulating illegal immigration.

"The government is either going to have the opposition on board or not. (Home Affairs) Minister (Tonio) Borg cannot pick and choose," Dr Gulia said.

The committee, which was set up following the national conference on illegal immigration and which includes representatives from the government, the opposition, NGOs, the army and the police, managed to reach a general agreement on a national policy for illegal immigration. A draft of the policy was produced and is currently being reviewed by Dr Borg. The ministry had told The Times the draft should be circulated to the rest of the members shortly.

Aside from the national policy, however, Dr Gulia insisted that the committee cannot be used only when it suits the government. "The government is either going to go it alone or with the opposition. We cannot be used to implement a certain policy and not consulted to have other policies introduced.

"Take the amendments tabled on Monday. Save for one item we did not discuss any of those amendments in the committee.

" I am not saying the opposition is going to oppose them or that we have a problem with them but it is clear the minister has ignored the committee," Dr Gulia insisted.

"We are four square behind the government on all the major issues but we have to be kept on board. We would like the government to step up pressure on the international front and we would be ready to have a joint front in that respect. However, we expect consistency," he said.

In this connection he mentioned a stand Labour MP George Vella had taken with the European Commission's director general for external relations Eneko Landaburu for the EU to support burden sharing, adding that he himself would bring up the subject at an upcoming meeting with the European Socialists in October.

The amendments presented in Parliament on Monday include one to increase the number of refugee commissioners in order to be able to speed up the screening process; an amendment which places the responsibility of repatriation on the craft carrying illegal immigrants; an amendment to allow the authorities to arrest an immigrant who, having lost an appeal, does not cooperate with authorities and an amendment which would suspend the right of appeal for illegal immigrants in cases where it is obvious the request for asylum is unjustified.

The committee had only discussed the possibility of increasing the number of refugee commissioners, Dr Gulia said.