Government rejects Immigration Pact veto call

The government this afternoon rejected Joseph Muscat’s call for the Prime Minister not to sign the EU Immigration Pact, saying that the Labour leader wanted to dump an agreement which would benefit Malta.

It said the pact was a crucial development and an unprecedented step forward, with the EU member states having committed themselves to share the immigration problem. That the MLP was not recognising this betrayed ignorance of how the EU worked.

While Dr Muscat was taking a position against the Immigration Pact, the Labour leader had not proposed any alternative, the government said.

It explained that up to some time ago, EU member states tackled illegal immigration individually, but the EU presidency had put the issue on the bloc’s agenda..

The Immigration Pact meant assistance for Malta. It also laid the basis for a common policy on immigration.

Once the pact was signed, the European Council would issue instructions for it, including the provisions on burden-sharing, to be brought into force.

To date, some countries were sharing the burden with Malta on a bilateral basis, but the concept would now be extended to all the EU member states.

The burden-sharing mechanism would apply for all migrants who enjoyed some sort of international protection – as was the case for most of the migrants who came to Malta. The rest would be repatriated to their country of origin.

See separate story on Dr Muscat's remarks.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080928/local/muscat-urges-pm-not-to-sign-immigration-pact