Malta offers to join Libya sea patrols

Malta offered army personnel to assist in joint Italy-Libya patrols intended to stem illegal immigration, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday.

He said the patrols should start in May, adding: "I'll believe it when I see it happening."

The patrols, meant to take place in Libya's territorial waters, had been set to kick off last month but were stalled because of technical problems.

It was recently reported that the patrol boats were ready to depart from Gaeta, a port in central Italy, but the Libyans were taking very long to choose the personnel for the operations and to agree on other details.

Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini has now informed Dr Borg that the operation should get underway in two months' time.

According to Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Marini, the initiative should have halved the arrival of illegal immigrants to Lampedusa and southern Italy by Easter but boatloads continue to leave the Libyan coast with little difficulty.

"Malta should reap tangible results once these patrols start. It won't mean illegal immigration will stop but it makes a huge difference halting the boats in Libyan territorial waters, as opposed to rescuing them when they're in distress in the middle of the Mediterranean," Dr Borg said.

The planned patrols are the fruit of a collaboration agreement signed between Rome and Tripoli at the end of January. Under the agreement, Italy will provide six patrol boats to the Libyan authorities to be used for the surveillance operations along its 2,000-kilometre coast.

Dr Borg said he and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici should be meeting their Libyan counterparts in the coming days to discuss these issues, among other matters.

Immigration was hot on the agenda yesterday during a meeting between President Eddie Fenech Adami and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale Palace, in Rome. The meeting was attended by Dr Borg and Dr Frattini and the countries' respective ambassadors.

They also discussed collaborating further within the Quadro Group set up to tackle immigration (made up of Malta, Italy, Cyprus and Greece) and resuming the work of the Mediterranean Union following the war in Gaza. Addressing the press after their meeting, both Dr Fenech Adami and Mr Napolitano lauded the excellent relations between the two countries, delving into the friendship that has survived over the centuries. In impeccable Italian, Dr Fenech Adami spoke about how successive Italian financial protocols had been instrumental in helping Malta strengthen its economy and quality of life in preparation for EU membership.

Recognising that this visit further strengthened relations between the two countries, he publicly thanked past and present Italian governments for their support and invited Mr Napolitano on a state visit to Malta.

Mr Napolitano said that, in the spirit of the excellent bilateral relations the two countries enjoyed, Italy would be working with Malta on an EU level on the issues of immigration and asylum.

Earlier, under a clear blue sky, Dr Fenech Adami inspected an Italian Guard of Honour as the sound of the bugle echoed through the cobbled-stoned square of the Quirinale Palace.

In the evening, after a meeting with House of Representatives president Gianfranco Fini at the Montecitorio Palace, Dr Fenech Adami, accompanied by his wife and family, attended Mass at the Gesù Divino Maestro church. This was followed by a reception with Maltese living in Rome - in all there are some 400 nationals living in Italy's capital.

Dr Fenech Adami is due to meet the Pope today.