[attach id=259549 size="medium"]One MEP described irregular immigrants coming into Malta “as human beings in need of protection, not a burden”. Photo: Jason Borg[/attach]

The new Common European Asylum System would do little to help Malta’s situation, Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola told the European Parliament yesterday.

In a stern address urging that more concrete action, Dr Metsola said: “Countries on the periphery of the EU, like Malta, are being left to their own devices.”

While she appreciated the EU legislation’s positive aspects, she said it was disappointing that it did not say responsibility for asylum seekers had to be shared among member states.

“I cannot allow this package to go through without emphasising again in the strongest possible terms that the immigration pressures Malta faces persist and remain acute,” she said.

“It is time for decisive action: the people in Malta and Gozo are waiting for something more. They deserve better.”

It is time for decisive action: the people in Malta and Gozo are waiting for something more

Labour MEP Claudette Abela Baldacchino was the only other Maltese MEP who spoke during the two-hour long debate.

She said that although the package of the directive was “certainly the way forward”, it was evident that countries like Malta were carrying the bulk of the burden.

“Hopefully all countries will be sharing the burden,” she said.

Last month MEPs including Dr Metsola made a similar plea when the Commission announced that the 2009 pilot project called Eurema –specifically designed for member states to relocate asylum seekers from Malta – would not be turned into a legislative proposal to make the scheme permanent, dashing Malta’s hopes of practical help.

The voluntary scheme provided financial compensation for countries relocating recognised refugees and people with international protection.

Voting on the common system will take place today at 11.30am, and is likely to go through as both major parties – the Christian Democrats and the European Socialists – seemed to be generally in favour of the proposed procedures.

Nonetheless, yesterday’s theme was hotly debated. One MEP even held up photos of irregular immigrants coming into Malta, crammed in a small boat. “They are human beings in need of protection, they are not a burden,” she said.

Most MEPs lauded some of the long-awaited improvements, namely the higher standards for reception and treatment of asylum seekers; stricter rules on the training of the authorities in contact with asylum seekers and police access to the Eurodac fingerprint system.

“We need to show we are not a region of egoists,” said one MEP. However, several others were concerned by the “underlying logic” that asylum seekers are “impostors” and that the proposals did not analyse sufficiently the “root of the problem”.

If MEPs vote in favour, the new system – which has been in the pipeline for more than a decade – will come into force in the second half of 2015. It would lay down common procedures and deadlines for handling applications while ensuring a basic set of rights for asylum seekers.

According to the policy an asylum seeker may be detained for a limited number of reasons: to check his identity; to verify the elements of his application; to decide on his right to enter the member state’s territory; to protect national security and public order; to prepare for return to his home country or for the purpose of transferring him to another EU country.

The Irish Minister for European Affairs Lucinde Creighton expressed satisfaction at the role of the current Irish presidency in getting all the countries to reach a conclusive agreement.

Concluding the session, Swedish Commissioner Cecilia Malmström urged all MEPs to be proud of the compromise which they all came to an agreement on. “Our member states have a long tradition of protecting citizens fleeing from prosecution... the EU can be proud of itself,” she said.

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