Amendment to Dublin Convention 'highly unlikely'

European Commission sources said yesterday it was "highly unlikely" that the rules of the Dublin Convention would be changed to enable Malta to become a transit state for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers arriving on its shores.

One of the key proposals in the European Parliament's resolution approved on Thursday is for the Commission and the Council to "take the initiative as soon as possible with a view to revising Regulation (EC) No 343/2003, Dublin II, by calling into question its very principle, namely that the member state responsible for dealing with an asylum application is the first country that applicants reach, which puts an intolerable burden on the countries situated in the south and east of the EU, and by introducing a fair mechanism for sharing responsibilities among the member states".

A spokesman for Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini yesterday welcomed the resolution saying it was another important development in Malta's quest for help. He played down reports that Mr Frattini was not in agreement with amending the Dublin Convention.

According to one of the leading news agencies in Brussels, Agence Europe, Mr Frattini "does not wish to amend the Dublin II Regulation aimed at determining the state responsible for examining an asylum request".

Asked specifically to confirm this position, Mr Frattini's spokesman only said that at the moment the Commission cannot state whether it will be moving towards proposing this specific amendment.

"Currently we are reviewing internally all the rules which fall under this convention and the suggestions made by the European Parliament in its resolution will also be evaluated according to this review."

The spokesman said that following the resolution, the Commission has already proposed a series of actions including the provision of emergency funds under the EU's Argo programme. He said that over the next few weeks Mr Frattini plans to propose amendments to the European Refugee Fund (ERF) in order to enable member states such as Malta to access funds quickly and with a minimum of bureaucratic process.

He said that the aim is for the emergency fund to be made available for early this summer, just before immigration peaks again.

Sources close to the Commission told The Times that even in the improbable eventuality that the Commission takes up the European Parliament's suggestion on the Dublin II convention, the amendment is still likely to be blocked.

"It is obvious that large member states such as Germany, France and Spain will never accept such an amendment and will thus block the whole process."

The sources said that one of the dangers of the European Parliament's suggestion is that such an amendment can cause the opposite effect of what it aims to achieve.

"If Malta starts being considered as a transit member state, as the European Union is suggesting, Malta will most probably become even more attractive to illegal immigrants and clandestine organisations wanting to traffic sub-Saharan Africans to the EU. If there is a guarantee that illegal immigrants and asylum seekers will automatically end up in other EU member states upon their arrival to Malta, than everyone will take the short cut and offload illegal immigrants directly onto Maltese shores."

The sources said that although Malta is recognised by the EU as having a big problem, declaring its territory as a transit point is not necessarily the solution to its problems.

Malta's burden due to this problem is incomparable to the situation in the other EU member states. One person arriving in Malta is equal to 206 in Germany when considering the different population sizes. Over 10 per cent of Malta's law and order forces are devoted to addressing this challenge and the finances currently spent on providing for the irregular immigrants represent one per cent of the country's general budget. The arrivals in 2005 represented 50 per cent of the country's birth rate.