EU pledges €2.1m for sea patrol

The European Union's border agency pledged €2.1 million yesterday to help Spain and Malta stop thousands of African illegal immigrants seeking to reach the wealthy 25-nation bloc.

The sum will help coordinate the EU's first joint sea patrol mission, aimed at helping Spain stop migrants from reaching its Canary Islands, which have seen in the last months a sharp rise in the arrival of migrants.

A total of 9,467 migrants landed on the Canary Islands by sea during the January-May period, around twice the 4,751 that arrived in the whole of last year.

Preparations for the Canary Islands mission will be finalised in two weeks, said Michal Parzyszek, a spokesman for European border agency Frontex, that will coordinate the operation.

"Migration pressure on the southern external sea borders of the European Union is high and has been high for a very long time," said Ilkka Laitinen, Warsaw-based Frontex's executive director.

"For the moment the main two hotspots are Malta and Spain - namely the Canary Islands," he said in a statement yesterday.

The European border agency will send a fact-finding mission to Malta next week to see what help other EU countries can provide, Mr Parzyszek said.

At least 10 EU nations will contribute to the mission, said Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesman for the EU's security commissioner. They were Germany, Britain, Portugal, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

"It is significant that countries like Britain, which is geographically far from the Canary Islands, share Spain's analysis that it is not only their problem but a European problem," Mr Roscam Abbing said. Parzyszek said: "It will be a real joint operation, not just a few days but much longer." He said he was expecting further offers for help from EU countries.

Spain has requested five patrol boats, five helicopters and an aircraft. EU interior ministers, meeting yesterday in Luxembourg, discussed the EU patrol mission.

The Spanish secretary of state for security, Antonio Camacho, stressed that illegal migration should be dealt with by all EU countries and not only its southern members through which illegal migrants were entering the bloc.

"The EU cannot indulge in naval gazing, it does not want to indulge in naval gazing, it must face this humanitarian problem which is so serious and so close to the EU's territory," he told a news briefing.

Responding to criticisms by the German interior minister on Spain's immigration legislation, Mr Camacho said illegal migrants were not attracted by legislation but tried to reach the EU because of poverty.

Senegal, on Thursday suspended an operation to repatriate Senegalese migrants from the Canary Islands, saying nearly 100 migrants flown to Dakar from the Canaries on Wednesday were mistreated by Spanish authorities.

Spain said it would investigate but hoped to resume the deportations soon.

Finnish MPs to explore migration problem

A delegation from the Justice and Home Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Finland will visit Malta in July on a fact finding mission about the impact of illegal immigration.

Finland will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union at that time.

Illegal immigration was one of the subjects discussed when a delegation from the Maltese Foreign and European Affairs Committee visited Finland. The delegation, which is currently on a visit to Scandinavian countries, was composed of Jason Azzopardi, chairman and MPs Clyde Puli (PN) and Leo Brincat and Jose' Herrera (MLP).

The Maltese MPs stressed that the EU needed to give more importance to the issue of illegal immigration in the Mediterranean. They argued that the principle of burden-sharing among EU member states was applicable for this issue too and that North African countries, such as Libya, should be involved in efforts to find a solution.