More funds from EU

Malta will be receiving a minimum of €300,000 annually from January 2008 to be used for the repatriation of illegal immigrants to their country of origin.

The money will be sourced from the European Return Fund (ERF) in terms of a decision taken last week by the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament.

Parliament officials explained that repatriation was a difficult and expensive process because most migrants arrived without identification and travel documents and often hid their nationality.

Repatriation costs include both transport and security because every migrant is normally escorted by a security officer on the flight home.

Since most immigrants who land in Malta originate from sub-Saharan Africa and there are no direct flights to those countries costs are estimated to run to more than €6,000 per illegal immigrant.

The new European Return Fund has been allocated a budget of €676 million for the period 2008-13.

A spokesman for the Civil Liberties Committee explained that each member state will receive €300,000 each year. Half of the remainder of the fund will be allocated according to the number of illegal immigrants already subject to a return decision.

The other half is to be assigned in proportion to the number of former immigrants in each country who would have already left the EU, whether of their own accord or were expelled.

He said the European Return Fund was just a part of the European Commission's "solidarity and management of migration flows" programme, launched last year.

There are another three funds in the pipeline covering the control of external borders and a common visa policy, the integration of legally resident immigrants and asylum policy.