If further proof were needed that Malta is carrying a disproportionate burden from immigration, it came from statistics published yesterday in Brussels.

Not only is the island the highest recipient of asylum claims per capita but it is also having to handle roughly 13 times the burden of the EU average.

According to the asylum application statistics for 2008 issued by Eurostat, Malta received 2,605 applications for a population of under half a million while the EU 27 member states received an average of 480 asylum claims for every million residents. This makes Malta by far the highest recipient of asylum seekers. Only Cyprus and Sweden come anywhere close.

Eurostat's figures also show that, in proportion, Malta is granting refugee or humanitarian status to far more asylum seekers than the EU average.

In 2008, Malta accepted 52.5 per cent of the asylum claims made, almost twice as many as the EU average which stood at 26.8 per cent. In fact, last year, Malta processed a total of 2,685 claims and accepted 1,410 applications.

The Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici had recently spoken about this, saying the EU were afraid of sharing the burden because they thought Malta had a liberal system which awarded protection with ease. Instead, he argued, the high figures stemmed from the fact that many of Malta's migrants were people who deserve protection.

In fact, the majority of asylum applications received last year were from war-torn Somalia (41 per cent), followed by Ivoirians (10 per cent) and Nigerians (eight per cent). While only 20 of the migrants were given full refugee status, the rest, 1,385 were given subsidiary protection.

On an EU level, France received the highest number of applications (41,800), followed by the UK (30,500), Germany (26,900), Sweden (24,900), Greece (19,900), Belgium (15,900) and the Netherlands (15,300).

When compared with the population of each member state, the highest rates of applications was recorded in Malta (6,350 applicants per million inhabitants), followed by Cyprus (4,370), Sweden (2,710), Greece (1,775), Austria (1,530) and Belgium (1,495).

Overall, the EU last year received 240,000 asylum applicants. The main countries of citizenship of these applicants were Iraq (29,000 or 12 per cent of the total number of applicants), Russia (21,100 or nine per cent), Somalia (14,300 or six per cent), Serbia (13,600 or six per cent) and Afghanistan (12,600 or five per cent).

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