The government would continue to credit Malta's immigration expenditure to its overseas development aid so long as this was in line with criteria of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Foreign Affairs Ministry Tonio Borg said.
"After all, we are providing free accommodation and food to people from the countries that, if assisted, can be credited to the ODA," the minister said.
The European Confederation For Relief and Development, Concord, an NGO which monitors aid to developing countries, said recently it suspected the government of inflating its ODA figures by including what it spent on illegal migration.
In the confederation's annual report for 2009, it recommended that the government should provide more details about the money being spent to assist poor countries and that it should distinguish between development funds and expenses related to illegal immigration.
Dr Borg said that over the past year the procedure had been amended, with the expenditure credited to ODA being limited only to the first year that each illegal immigrant spent in Malta, rather than their entire stay, as was previously the case.
"The government's expenditure on the first year of each illegal immigrant's stay in Malta is credited to the ODA in line with organisation criteria," Dr Borg insisted.
"I appreciate that they (Concord) would like to divert the expenditure on the illegal immigrants' first year to direct overseas aid and that they think I should not include it in the ODA but I am not ready to renounce something that is acceptable to the OECD," he said.
Dr Borg said the issue had been raised in the past, but never aggressively, and the ministry had explained its position.
He was speaking at the presentation of €256,000 in ODA to 16 lay and religious charity organisations at the St Joseph Home in Sta Venera.
The funds will be spent on their projects as far afield as Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and South America. They include the development of training and study centres, schools, clinics, rainwater harvesting and fish farms, among others.
The Concord report also highlighted transparency on aid to poor countries as one of Malta's main challenges. Last year, Concord charged, the island had failed to give a breakdown of the 0.2 per cent of gross national income (GNI) it claimed to be allocating to development aid, despite previous calls for such information.
Rejecting any criticism regarding transparency, Dr Borg explained that, over the last two years, the process had in fact become much more transparent.
"If something is not working properly, I am all for changing it. But we have greatly improved the way these funds are distributed, even though they are limited."
A total of €330,000 has been allocated to ODA for 2010. A total of €256,000 was distributed yesterday with some of the remaining amount already committed to projects started last year and about €30,000 left over for an emergency.
It was government policy that the funds would go to infrastructural projects and not recurrent expenditure such as office rent and flights to conduct studies.
"My intention is to get much more funding," Dr Borg said, adding that the financial crisis was affecting everyone in that respect but that, at least, non-pecuniary overseas aid, such as the training of public servants in Malta and their secondment overseas, would be increased.