It was a pity that the Nationalist Party chose to use the immigrant issue for partisan ends, moving away from the present political consensus prevalent on the issue, AD chairman Arnold Cassola said.

He was referring to a statement on the vote in the European Parliament yesterday on a report on a common immigration policy prepared by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil. All Maltese MEPs voted for the report but an amendment to allow migrants to vote in local elections moved by the Socialist and Green groups was approved. All Maltese MEPs voted against the amendment.

Prof. Cassola said: "It is easy but also dishonest to selectively interpret a complex and highly important EP vote. The PN's unnecessary alarm about voting rights for legal, registered and regular migrants is simply a populist vote-catching attempt which dangerously fans the flames of xenophobia, fear and racism.

"The right to vote, according to this document, is being proposed for regular migrants at local council level only, and not to irregular immigrants."

He said that a regular migrant with voting rights could be anyone from anywhere outside the EU. But the PN conveniently ignored the fact that this proposal was included in the original report presented by PN MEP Simon Busuttil to a European Parliament plenary session on Monday.

He said the PN was trying to hide the fact that all political parties were united in finding solutions for this problem.

With regards to the Green's voting record, Cassola remarked that even with Green MEPs, the vote was split with 21 in favour and 16 against.

He criticised the fact that Busuttil's report did not include a reference to obligatory responsibility sharing as regards irregular migrants.