Following the agreement reached with Holland, another two countries, one of them in the EU, have agreed to settle migrants who landed in Malta, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday.
He told Parliament during the budget debate that illegal migration was the biggest challenge which his ministry faced last year. The government's policy was to help those who were deserving of assistance while being firm with those who did not deserve protection.
The police this year repatriated 718 illegal immigrants. Since 2002, a total of 5,200 migrants came to Malta. There were now 1,400 migrants in detention centres and 1,000 in the open centres. The government and the opposition were working together on this issue and seeking to agree on a national policy along with the NGOs.
This year the government created a new detention centre at Safi and converted a large warehouse for this purpose. Another warehouse would start being used on Monday, hosting 280. In all, the structures opened this year could hold 700.
Dr Borg said it had not been easy to persuade EU countries on the urgent need to help Malta, but results had been achieved. The European Commission, on a Maltese recommendation, had created a €20 million emergency fund for countries suffering illegal immigration. This was over and above other funds, such as the €3 million which his ministry had applied for.
Dr Borg said Malta had given protection to 53 per cent of the migrants who requested it. This year up to October a total of 1,000 requests for refugee status by persons from 35 countries were considered.
The Commissioner for Refugees was not excessively liberal, as some made him out to be. Since 2002, only 155 requests for refugee status were upheld and 1,400 migrants were given temporary protection. 1,126 requests were rejected.
The government, he said, would stick by its detention policy, with which the opposition also agreed. If Australia, which was a continent, had a detention policy, surely Malta was more justified to apply such a policy, he asked.