German minister promises to back Malta on immigration

The German Minister of State for Europe, Gunter Closer, has pledged his country’s support to Malta on illegal immigration at bilateral and European Union levels, the government said this afternoon.

“The smallest EU Member State cannot be left on its own when facing such considerable challenges,” the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs quoted the German minister as saying during a meeting he had minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

Mr Closer ended a short visit to Malta this afternoon after his meeting with Dr Mifsud Bonnici and an earlier meeting with Foreign Minister Tonio Borg (see separate story).

The ministry said the German minister had declared he was now able to truly appreciate the scale of the problem that Malta is facing.

Migration, with particular reference to the burden-sharing mechanism in the new EU Immigration Pact, dominated the meeting with Dr Mifsud Bonnici.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici explained that a record number of irregular immigrants had arrived in Malta so far this year, mostly coming from Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.

“This means that we are already in a position to predict that in view of such countries of origin there will be a higher proportion of asylum seekers being granted refugee or temporary humanitarian protection – both of which are considered to be forms of international protection which is referred to in the Pact on Immigration and Asylum,” Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

Information given to Parliament yesterday shows that Malta granted protection status to 1,097 migrants this year up to September 18, compared to 627 for the whole of last year.