MEPs urge Brussels to go beyond technical and financial solidarity on burdens

The European Parliament yesterday approved a resolution calling on the EU to move beyond technical and financial solidarity with countries facing disproportionate illegal migration burdens.

The resolution, drafted by French Socialist MEP Martine Roure, was based on a report of 10 visits by EP delegations to detention centres in the EU, including Malta's.

The resolution criticises the increasing use of detention by member states when dealing with asylum seekers.

Without mentioning names, the resolution criticises the condition of detention centres, describing them as "intolerable from the point of view of hygiene, overcrowding and the equipment available".

A seven-strong MEP delegation visited Malta in March 2006 and was highly critical of the state of detention centres here and the conditions in which migrants are kept.

In the resolution, the EP proposed the setting up of a specific "European solidarity instrument" aimed at relieving the burden posed by the high number of refugees and asylum seekers received by member states having external borders.

It proposed the establishment of a permanent system of visits and inspections to all member states which have detention centres.

It also called for asylum seekers and immigrants to be lodged in open reception centres rather than in closed units.

The report on which the resolution is based was also supported by Nationalist MEP David Casa and Labour MEP Glenn Bedingfield. The other three Maltese MEPs were not present during the voting session.