Italian dossier 'not credible'

Italy's dossier on Malta's search and rescue (SAR) record was not credible, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday.

Dr Borg said the document was based on "false premises".

He focused specifically on the claim by Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni that Malta failed to rescue about 40,000 immigrants since 2004, shifting the responsibility to Italy instead.

"Italy never mentioned the 40,000 figure before but all of a sudden came up with such a number. Ironically, the figure includes those 13 Kurds who arrived hidden in a container in Italy and who Italy sent to Malta. If the rest of the dossier contains more of these cases, then I wonder how it can have any credibility," he said.

The incident over the Kurdish migrants in 2004 echoes the recent stand-off that fuelled the spat between the two countries when a German freighter had ended up in the midst of a diplomatic tug-of-war over 13 immigrants it had on board.

Both Italy and Malta last week refused entry to a Turkish-owned freighter that picked up 140 migrants 40 miles off Lampedusa and 114 miles off Malta. The migrants were eventually landed in Sicily on Sunday after Italy relented "for humanitarian reasons" but only following a four-day deadlock.

Sunday's decision was followed by a diplomatic attack on Malta that culminated on Tuesday with Mr Maroni handing the damning dossier to Brussels.

Reacting to another of Mr Maroni's comments, as reported in the Italian media, that Malta interpreted regulations "the Mediterranean way", Dr Borg said: "I wish to remind the Italians that they are Mediterranean too".

He said he was very surprised by the misinformation in the Italian media during the stand-off, particularly when they claimed that the migrants were in Maltese waters, when Malta was three times more distant from the migrants than Lampedusa.

He pointed out that comments by EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot that Malta was in an impossible situation never featured in the Italian media, which instead claimed that Commission President José Manuel Barroso had told Malta to take the migrants. Dr Borg said Mr Barroso never spoke to Malta about the stand-off except after it was resolved.

Dr Borg was speaking at a press conference during which he gave a breakdown of his ministry's work over the past year.

On the diplomatic front, he announced that Turkey was expected to open an embassy in Malta in the near future. An EU-Arab League liaison office would soon open at the former MCESD office in Floriana.

Asked about the burden-sharing agreement reached with other EU member states in the form of the Migration and Asylum Pact, Dr Borg admitted he was not satisfied with how the process had worked so far and said more work had to be done. He said no sovereign state was obliged to take illegal immigrants from Malta and some countries were more forthcoming than others. Malta was using its embassies to persuade more countries to accept immigrants. He said so far just under 200 migrants had been taken by EU countries, with France committing itself to take 80. The US has already taken 240.

Dr Borg listed, among the highlights of activities in the past year, the visa waiver agreement with the US and double taxation agreements with Switzerland and Jordan. He also mentioned how the Foreign Ministry was heavily involved in the release of Maltese oil worker George Scerri, kidnapped in Nigeria.