The EU must focus on increasing tangible solidarity among member states, mainly in the form of intra-EU relocation, given that Malta faced disproportionate pressure, the Home Affairs Ministry said.
In a statement issued after today’s approval in the European Parliament of a “Common European Asylum System”, the ministry insisted that such solidarity would de facto ensure the upkeep of common standards across the EU, not only in terms of recognition of status, but also in terms of eventual integration opportunities.
The EP today endorsed rules laying down common procedures and deadlines for handling asylum applications and basic rights for asylum seekers arriving in the EU.
During the debate yesterday, Maltese MEPs, both Labour and Nationalists, expressed disappointment that the new package does not include provisions for solidarity, particularly through the transfer of migrants from the country where they would have landed.
The ministry said today that it had to be acknowledged that certain members, such as Malta, had natural limitations when it came to integration opportunities, mainly in view of small size and a small labour market.
Furthermore, failure to assign due attention to intra-EU relocation was not only detrimental to member states exposed to disproportionate asylum pressures, but also to beneficiaries of international protection in those states.
In Malta, the minister said, individual asylum applicants were always granted the possibility of an interview at first instance. Well over 90 per cent of irregular migrants applied for international protection and were duly interviewed, something which attested to the accessibility of the asylum system, the ministry said.
It added that Malta always allowed asylum seekers to stay in its territory pending the outcome of appeals procedures in line with the proposed new legislation.
The ministry noted that investment in the Office of the Refugee Commissioner enabled a more expeditious determination of cases at first instances, thereby reducing the term in detention for most genuine asylum seekers.
"It should also be noted that Maltese policy exempts vulnerable persons, including minors, from the detention requirement," it said.
In an explanation of the new rules, the European Parliament explained that current EU law does not impose specific deadlines on member states for deciding on asylum applications. To iron out differences between national asylum procedures, the new rules bring in common deadlines for handling asylum applications (a standard six-month deadline with limited exceptions), stricter rules on training staff dealing with asylum seekers and new provisions for the special needs of unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable persons.
Minimum reception conditions
A shortlist of grounds for detaining asylum seekers, decent detention and living conditions, an early assessment of asylum seekers' medical and psychological needs and swifter access to the labour market (nine months after lodging an asylum application) are among the key improvements to the 2003 reception conditions directive. As a general rule, if asylum seekers are detained, they will have to be placed in specialised detention facilities.
No transfers to countries unable to cope
The Dublin regulation determines which country is responsible for dealing with an asylum request (usually the one through which the asylum seeker first entered the EU). Under the new rules, asylum seekers will not be transferred to EU countries where there is a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment. These rules will also introduce an early-warning mechanism to help tackle problems in national asylum systems before they turn into crises.
Police access to asylum seekers' database
Finally, member states’ police forces and Europol will have access to asylum seekers’ fingerprints in the Eurodac database, to help them fight terrorism and serious crime. At the request of MEPs, stricter data-protection provisions and new safeguards to ensure that data is not used for other purposes, will apply.
The new asylum rules, which have already been agreed by Parliament and Council representatives and backed by national governments, should enter into force in the second half of 2015.
The Dublin rules on transfers of asylum seekers will take effect six months after their legal entry into force (i.e. at the start of 2014).