Frattini lays into Malta, proposes migration summit
EU Commission has not taken a stand
Malta should have a look at how it is treating illegal immigrants and asylum seekers before criticising others, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.
The former European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs was reacting to Lawrence Gonzi's recently expressed "disgust" at Italy's refusal to help illegal immigrants found close to Lampedusa.
"I will give you a report about Malta which I wasn't going to give you," Mr Frattini told the influential Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
"This is a report about the condition of detention centres in Malta which says that immigrants are subjected to inhuman treatment. There are also photos showing prison cells, dirty toilets and children. The canteens look like a pigsty. This is not a Berlusconi report but a report from Medicins sans Frontiers."
The report, Not Criminals, is the one drawn up by the humanitarian organisation last month before it pulled out of Malta's detention centres over what it described as appalling conditions.
The move coincided with a visit by EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot to the island. The government had objected to the stand taken by MSF and described the report as "over dramatised" and a "thinly veiled attack on Malta's detention policy".
At the same time, Minister Frattini recognised that the EU was not helping Malta and Italy on illegal immigration and called for a specific EU summit on the subject.
"If the EU has said the problem of illegal immigration is not only a problem for the Italians or Maltese, they have to act and give us help. I think that the time has come to hold a summit specifically on this issue. EU heads of government have to tell us what to do when a boatload of 500 illegal immigrants arrives at Lampedusa," he said.
Italy is currently under attack from several quarters particularly humanitarian organisations, a Vatican Migrants Commission and the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner for its recent change in policy to return illegal immigrants to Libya without giving them the chance to apply for asylum.
Just yesterday, the UNHCR said it had written to the Italian government to show its "grave concern" over the new policy and appealed to the Italian authorities to take back all the illegal immigrants sent to Tripoli and check whether they have a right to claim asylum.
The European Commission, on the other hand, has not taken a stand. Pressed several times by journalists, a spokesman for the Commissioner for Justice said that he did not want to comment on Minister Frattini's remarks and said the issue will be one of the main items of the next meeting for ministers in June. He said the EU preferred to use this forum than holding a specific summit on the issue.