Scandinavia would be the preferred destination for the more than 2,000 asylum seekers stuck in Malta, data from an EU report suggest.
The majority of asylum seekers who last year fled the island and entered another EU member state irregularly were found in Sweden and Finland, according to the 2008 Eurodac report, an EU fingerprint database designed to flag multiple asylum applications.
Some were also found in Norway, which despite not being in the EU, also takes part in the EU's Eurodac system.
"Although the system only detects those asylum seekers who entered illegally and who had already filed an asylum application elsewhere, it is evident many of those escaping Malta are heading north," an EU official told The Times.
According to the report, 178 asylum seekers, who had already filed an application in Malta, were arrested for illegal entry in another European country. The most, 48, were caught in Sweden, followed by Finland (34), the Netherlands (29), and Norway (24).
Other European destinations usually popular with sub-Saharan Africans were not on the radar of "Maltese" migrants, so much so that only 16 were caught in the UK and eight in Italy.
"We believe that not all illegal entrants into Europe are caught by member states and the assumption is that these figures are only the tip of the iceberg," the official said.
"However, the figures clearly show trends and in Malta's case it is evident that Scandinavia is the preferred final destination of the illegal immigrants and asylum seekers entering Malta."
Malta registered 2,001 asylum applications through the fingerprint system last year, according to Eurodac. Of these, 108 turned out to be multiple applications, meaning those claiming protection would have already tried to enter the EU before.
The EU's Dublin rules state the country in which an asylum application is first lodged has to process it. This means Malta, as a country on the EU's frontier, normally receives more applications than other member states that are not considered to be a point of entry.
For the past years Malta has argued these rules were putting extra pressure on southern member states and called for them to be changed.
Last year, the European Commission accepted Malta's demands and has already proposed changes so that burden sharing would also be introduced in the case of the Dublin regulations. According to the proposed changes, the Dublin rules will be suspended in the case of member states which received a large influx of asylum applications.
These rules are being discussed at member state level and by the European Parliament.
Although burden sharing is a new concept for the EU, the rules would still not oblige member states to take asylum seekers from Malta as this would always remain voluntary.
So far, most member states have been reluctant to offer real solidarity to Malta, even though they proclaimed their "agreement" during political meetings.
Only last week it was announced that just six member states out of the 26 have assured the Commission they would be resettling 100 refugees from Malta as part of a pilot project designed for Malta's needs.
Apart from France, the other large member states stopped short of committing themselves.