Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella said today that Malta was very grateful for Swiss cooperation on irregular migration, particularly as no other EU country had shown similar support.

Speaking at a meeting with Swiss Ambassador Bernardino Regazzoni, Dr Vella said he hoped Swiss cooperation in refugee burden sharing would continue.

Dr Vella was referring to a group of 19 North African refugees which were resettled in Switzerland in April 2012.

Although not part of the European Union, Switzerland had agreed to take its share of refugees in Malta, describing the move as an expression of solidarity.

The minister said that even though the 19 refugees was not a large number, he hoped future Swiss cooperation would help ease the pressures of the growing influx of irregular migrants.

Dr Ve lla also said that Malta would be supporting Swiss proposals put forward in ongoing talks with the EU.

Switzerland has been at odds with the EU 28 over the preferential tax treatment given to Multinationals such as Procter and Gamble and Trafigura Beeher BV.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.