The EU's anti-migration patrol mission, coordinated by its border control agency Frontex in the seas around Sicily, Malta and Libya, has stalled despite original plans to start operating at the beginning of last month.
Frontex sources yesterday admitted that Nautilus IV, as the operation is known, "is running late" as there were still "technical hitches" that had to be ironed out among the participating member states.
When pressed by The Times to provide further details on these hitches and to say whether a date had been established for the patrols to start, the sources declined further comment.
The Maltese government, represented by police and army officials in the Frontex meetings, also kept mum on the issue. A government official would only say that "technical preparations are being discussed and we hope this year's patrol mission will start soon".
This year's EU anti-migration patrols in the Mediterranean were supposed to be the longest ever to be conducted by Frontex, on a budget of over €10 million approved by member states and the European Parliament.
According to earlier plans, now being revised, air and sea assets from the participating member states, including Malta, had to conduct a nine-month mission from March to November, considered to be the peak of the migration season.
This year's mission, if and when it takes place, should also have the added help of another similar, though separate, mission, to be conducted by Italian and Libyan personnel inside the 12-mile Libyan territorial waters.
The start of this mission has also been long overdue, although last week Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said it would start by May 15.
Mr Maroni optimistically said he expected that no more illegal immigrants leaving Libya would reach Italian shores once this operation kicked off.
Almost all of the illegal immigrants landing on Maltese shores arrive from Libya and, if Mr Maroni's expectations come to fruition, Malta would have resolved its immigration problems.
However, sources close to the EU yesterday told The Times they were very sceptical about Mr Maroni's claim.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is exerting more pressure on its member states to grant effective help to Malta and Italy in their fight against illegal immigration.
Addressing the EP following last week's tragedy off the coast of Libya, when about 200 people drowned trying to reach Europe, EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot launched a fresh appeal to member states to stop the flood of immigrants crossing the Mediterranean.
"We hope the events of the last few days will make all member states realise the seriousness of the problem," he said. Mr Barrot said it was "intolerable" if this trend continued and called on all member states to cooperate in implementing the two naval operations - Nautilus and Hermes (the latter on the Spanish-Canary Islands route) organised and financed by Frontex to the tune of €24 million - to discourage the huge wave of immigrants arriving in Europe.
"Member states must stand four-square with Italy and Malta, who bear the brunt of the migratory flows from Libya," he said, adding that Libya had to assume its responsibilities on readmitting illegal immigrants who travelled through its territory.
Mr Barrot said Libya had a key role to play in tackling traffickers, stopping illegal immigrants leaving its shores and offering international protection to migrants.