Migration: It would be mistake to suspend obligations, set quotas - minister

Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said this evening that it would be a serious mistake for Malta to adopt some of the proposals on tackling immigration made yesterday by Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat.

Speaking in Parliament, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said one could not establish a quota of migrants which Malta could accommodate, as Dr Muscat suggested.

“What would happen once the quota has been reached and a boatload of migrants is in distress off Malta. Do we post a sign in the sea saying ‘no vacancies’?” Dr Mifsud Bonnici asked. “Can we do that when people are drowning?”

It would also be a very serious mistake for Malta to suspend its international obligations, the minister said. Malta stood to benefit more by arguing its case in the EU and the other international institutions than being obstinate.

Malta, he said, was being assisted by the EU on the immigration issue precisely because it was a member of the EU. But immigration did not start when Malta joined the EU, but two years previously. By the time Malta joined the EU, 1,500 migrants had already come to Malta.

Suspending international obligations also meant suspending obligations under maritime conventions. This would be very detrimental to Malta’s large and growing maritime industry.

Furthermore, even if Malta was to suspend its international obligations, what about its moral obligations? Could it allow anyone to drown in its waters?

Nothing would change the fact that Malta was in the middle of the migratory route from N. Africa to Italy. The challenge for Malta, therefore, was to tackle the problem in a rational manner while upholding its values and national interest.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici stressed that Malta was not obliged to take all migrants which found themselves in its waters. They had a right of passage, and Malta was only obliged to take migrants who actually landed here, or were rescued because they were in distress.

The important thing was to tackle this problem in a rational and logical way to keep the situation under control, Dr Mifsud Bonnici.

It was also wrong to criticise Libya over this issue, because that country too had its own immigration problems and needed help.

The minister welcomed the fact that the Opposition agreed with the government’s detention policy and said the government was committed to retaining this policy while improving the detention centres as far as was possible in the circumstances.

Dr Mifsud Bonnci said he was very concerned that Dr Muscat’s speech indicated that a socialist party was veering to the right in an attempt to gain popular support.

He was sure, however, that the people wanted the country to retain its dignity in the way it treated the immigrants. The general public was not those people who had hijacked some blogs.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici urged the Opposition to go deeper into the issue of immigration. Its proposals, he said, were drawn up in a hurry and ignored issues such as repatriation. However many of the proposals that were made by Dr Muscat were already in hand. That included improving the detention centres, applying an admissions policy to the detention centres and improving security. Training for migrants had also been started in order to help them integrate, but that was not easy when migrants never had any intention to come to Malta.

The government, through Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said, had also launched talks on ways to help communities where open and closed centres were located.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the government was commited to fight exploitation of migrants by employers. On treatment of migrants at health centres and hospitals, he said the migrants only jumped the queue when they were under escort, for obvious security reasons.

Dr Mfsud Bonnici underlined the importance of the Immigration Pact and other arrangements such as the new Refugee Support Agency. The Pact, he said, included provisions on burden sharing and on repatriation, from which Malta would benefit. Rather than suspending Malta’s obligations, Malta needed to work from within to improve those areas which needed to be improved, in the national interest, he said.