Update 4

EU states - as well as three countries which are not in the EU -  have pledged to resettle 323 refugees who arrived in Malta as migrants, informed sources said in Brussels this evening.

The promises were made at a special pledging conference convened by Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom as part of an intra-EU migrants resettlement pilot project.

The pledges were made by Poland, Portugal, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Hungary and Denmark as well as non-members Norway, Switzerland  and Lichtenstein. Germany alone will take 100 migrants.

Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, who attended the conference, said it represented progress, but more remained to be done.

There are 2,700 migrants who are beneficiaries of international protection in Malta.

Speaking to timesofmalta.com minutes before the start of the pledging conference this afternoon, Ms Malmstrom had said that many member states were not yet in a position to make any pledges to Malta as they still need more time to come out with definitive numbers and to consult their parliaments. 

During a press conference at the end of the first session of the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting this afternoon, Commissioner Malstrom urged the  member states to show their solidarity with Malta.

"I hope that member states will be making a big demonstration of solidarity with Malta this afternoon," the Commissioner told the press.

'A FAILURE FOR MALTA' - PL

The Labour Party said the pledging conference was a failure for the government's immigration policy. It said the government's attitude was humiliating Malta, which had ended up begging, without being given any help.

This confirmed the remarks by Joseph Muscat two years ago that the Solidarity Pact for burden sharing would not work.

EUROPEAN COUNTRIES TAKING A THIRD OF IMMIGRANTS IN MALTA - PN

The Nationalist Party said that although everyone agreed that more solidarity could have been shown, a positive step forward had been made and European countries had committed themselves to take a third of the immigrants who had arrived in Malta in the past weeks.

At the same time, those who adopted the policy Labour leader Joseph Muscat wanted to follow, that of threats and stamping of feet, had not acquired anything at all.