Immigration Pact is 'plan of action' - PM
Malta to insist Frontex should stay
The Prime Minister said this evening that the Immigration Pact approved by EU ministers last week tackled immigration in a holistic manner, setting a policy direction for the European Union and establishing a firm basis upon which solutions could be built in the short and the long term.
“This is a task, this sets direction, this is a plan of action which the European Commission is expected to work on in the coming months,” Dr Gonzi told Parliament in a statement.
The Opposition spokesman on EU affairs, George Vella, said he understood that no country could be forced to take migrants from Malta, but the opposition still expected a stronger document than this, and it feared that the Pact would not solve anything.
In his statement, Dr Gonzi said that the Pact would strengthen Malta’s own efforts in tackling immigration by protecting those migrants who deserved protection while repatriating those who did not. This would be carried out in the context of solidarity between the member states of the EU.
Dr Gonzi said the Maltese government had raised awareness in the European Union on the situation of immigration in Malta. Hitherto, the EU had not treated immigration at a union level and each country had treated the issue as it deemed fit.
Malta, however, had played a crucial role in the establishment of mechanisms to address migration, including the setting up of the Frontex border control agency and the allocation of funds, including the Refugee Fund and the External Borders Fund.
However the need had been felt for a plan to tackle all the aspects of the immigration problem. The French Presidency had therefore drafted a comprehensive political document which was first distributed in draft form last May.
Malta had immediately noted the absence, in that document, of the principle of burden sharing and the possibility of migrants being relocated to other EU countries.
It pressed its case in various quarters and both principles were included in the final document signed on September 25.
Dr Gonzi went over the contents of the Immigration Pact, highlighting the clause on burden-sharing. This, he said, was not a simple declaration, but much more. All 27 member states had unanimously chosen to give their consent for this pact to be implemented by the European Union.
The Maltese government, therefore, felt it was in the true,long term interest of Malta that this pact should be supported.
Labour MPs Anglu Farrugia, Michael Falzon, Carmelo Abela and George Vella asked a series of questions, notably on the voluntary nature of burden-sharing. They also asked about the effectiveness of Frontex and why repatriation of migrants had declined even when arrivals had increased. Dr Vella said the opposition was four-square behind the government in that both agreed that Malta deserved more tangible solidarity from the EU. The opposition, however, had expected the government to be more forceful in its talks on the Immigration Pact.
He agreed that one could not force other countries to take immigrants from Malta, whether they were legal or illegal immigrants but the opposition had wished to see a firmer stand by Malta and a stronger document than this. His fear was that this declaration would not solve anything.
Dr Vella insisted that the two sides needed to work together, not least because of the way how racist and xenophobic sentiments were growing in Malta.
He also referred to the fire which destroyed five tents at the open centre at Hal Far on Sunday and said Malta should give more humane protection for such people as winter approached.
In his replies, Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said that as Dr Vella had argued, no country could be forced to take migrants from another country. This voluntary and coordinated burden-sharing mechanism, therefore, was the best that could be achieved.
He said Malta never said it was completely happy with Frontex, but it should be continued because Malta was still benefiting. Frontex signified the EU presence at the border and Malta would continue to insist that Frontex stayed here, and more countries participated in it through funds and assets.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta was doing its best to repatriate more migrants. But it was not easy, particularly since a large number of migrants came from Somalia. It was where repatriation could not be made that the new burden-sharing mechanism came into play.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said plans were in hand for the tents at Hal Far to be gradually replaced by containers which would be used as mobile homes.
Dr Gonzi welcomed Dr Vella's declaration that the opposition was four-square with the government, more so as its call for the government not to sign the Pact may have given the impression that its position was close to that of right wing elements. He pointed out that, importantly for Malta, this Pact would also involve coordination for the repatriation of migrants, something which, to date, had also been a logistical nightmare for Malta. As for compulsory burden-sharing, Dr Gonzi said one should be careful, lest Malta itself was required to take migrants from other countries which had seen a steep increase in migrants.
Dr Gonzi said he expected more from Frontex, but it was not a failure and had saved many lives, which was the most important thing. One could also note that while migration had risen by 195 percent in Lampedusa the increase in Malta was 35 percent. All should work for it to have more assets.
Concluding, Dr Gonzi said that last week he informally met Italian Minister Frattini who confirmed that a meeting would be held in Malta between Libya, Italy and Malta to discuss migration.
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In Discussion
11 Comments
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Stefan Gauci Scicluna
Oct 7th 2008, 08:37
Although this agreement seems to be beneficial to Malta due to more EU coordination, it's interesting to analyze the issue of deadlines on application of this agreement, as I'm afraid that lack of deadlines would mean lack of efficiency and effectiveness of the policy agreed.
Sandro Pace
Oct 7th 2008, 00:55
David Seychell, you have understood it, the prime minister did not, apparently.
No one should be forced to accept immigrants from Malta. But no one should force Malta to be an asylum processing factory. Whether this is an effective agreement or a bickering one which have fooled again the govt. and now probably even the opposition (lest it will appear Right), only the eventual size of the container and other shanty cities will tell.
The agreement is nothing but a postponement of the problem to our children, unless burden sharing is Systematic, Significant and Timely. Of course, even a 20 a year can be burden sharing. The commission is playing for time.
The PM boasts that 27 countries are in favour of the text. But their only interest was theirs, and to get it signed, and not that of Malta.
Antoine Vella (Balzan)
Oct 7th 2008, 00:11
Malcolm Seychell
There is a very real possibility that eventually Malta might be considered to have less difficulties than other countries and would therefore be obliged to take in refugees from other EU areas.
What you do not seem to understand is that, if burden-sharing is mandatory, it will be the role of the EU Commission to decide how many immigrants (legal or not) each country can take and the individual countries would have little or no say about it. As I showed in my previous post, other countries can claim to be receiving larger numbers of immigrants and some have more socio-political problems than we do.
I had already written about this some days ago when commenting on some other news item and some of your friends felt they had to ridicule the idea.
Antoine Vella (Balzan)
Oct 7th 2008, 00:03
Malcolm Seychell
"This summer Italy only took some 13,000..... In other words we will always be the most burdened country, hence we would never take migrants from others. "
Please Mr Seychell, respect our intelligence. The statistics for 2008 are obviously still not complete but, In the first seven months some 15 thousand had already entered Italy and Ttese were just the illegal ones.
According to Eurostat, the immigration rate per 1000 local population in 2007 was:
Luxembourg 34 immigrants
Cyprus 24.3
Ireland 24.2 (2006)
Spain 22.6
Slovenia 15
Denmark 11.8
Malta 9.4
Italy 9.4
Several other countries had rates higher or comparable to ours and most are on the increase. (cf. Tab 6 of 'Population in Europe 2007' http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-SF-08-081/EN/KS-SF-08-081-EN.PDF)
Ivan Attard
Oct 6th 2008, 21:53
Dr Gonzi. Stop treating Maltese citizens as tubers. Who do you think you are going to convince by your puerile explanations of your bungled attempt at making Malta stand up to its rights. You are plain and simple the laughing stock of all Europe and Africa.
Sure, 'compulsory' burden sharing was going to spell the end of us.
l Galea
Oct 6th 2008, 21:37
@I. M. Dingli
Could it be that there are some high placed people involved in the trafficking of illegal immigrants who are preventing the necessary measures from being taken to stop the invasion of OUR country by illegal immigrants?
@David Seychell
You are right. Some politicians think that we are all stupid people who cannot count 1+1
STEPHEN FARRUGIA
Oct 6th 2008, 21:25
I worry to read such badly twisted stories. David Seychell is 100 % right. The government is more interested in showing that it is solving the problem but reality will become very ugly when they know that nothing is solved.
jimmy vella
Oct 6th 2008, 20:56
Why don`t labour say where they stand on the issue. It seems to me it is more interested in the welfare of immigrants and the rise of racism above anything else. Would it put a limit on the number of immigrants allowed in or what if ever elected these are the answers the Maltese people want not more of the same.This it seems to me is a load of hot air from both parties .What country is going to take these immigrants when all over Europe no body wants to hear anything to do with immigrants let alone invite them in in their thousands.
Anthony Mizzi
Oct 6th 2008, 20:35
A plan of action should have some action and not just words.
Burden sharing is only being done by the locals and who is to enforce the burden sharing with the other E.U. member states? When are we going to see some action and not lawyer jargon?
One starts to conclude that no one really wants to tackle the issue as illegal immigrants are a good supply of cheap labour, towards deterioration of existing working conditions for the Maltese.
David Seychell
Oct 6th 2008, 20:25
"As for compulsory burden-sharing, Dr Gonzi said one should be careful, lest Malta itself was required to take migrants from other countries which had seen a steep increase in migrants."
Please Dr Gonzi respect our intelligence.
With burden sharing (compulsory) Malta would never have to take migrants from other countries. The reason is very simple. The aim of burden sharing is that countries like Malta which have too much irregular immigrants would not only not take in any more, but move the excess to other countries that are not so burdened. And since Malta is one of the most burdened country in the world (if not the most), there will never be a case where other countries would have more than us. This summer we recieved 8 per square km. 8 per square km means 2.5 million for Italy and 4.3 million for France. This summer Italy only took some 13,000. In other words we will always be the most burdened country, hence we would never take migrants from others.
I. M. Dingli
Oct 6th 2008, 19:52
But why don't they ever discuss how to tackle the traffickers! Is this a big taboo or what?