The long-term solution to irregular migration is a common asylum policy through which there would be a legal guarantee of solidarity across all EU member stations, EU Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avaramopoulos said this afternoon.
Mr Avaramopoulos was speaking at the end of a short visit to Malta, in which he had “very fruitful” talks with the Maltese government, mainly on security issues and irregular migration.
The EU Commissioner was commenting during a joint news conference with Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela, at the MIA VIP lounge.
On his part Mr Abela said the assurances given by the Commission that Malta “would not be left alone” to face irregular migration boded well.
He also welcomed the news that Malta was set to receive some €17.7 million from Brussels on a number of migration-related projects.
Addressing another news conference at the European Asylum Support Office in Marsa this morning, the Commissioner said that solidarity with Malta on irregular migration must no longer remain a “slogan” but translate itself in “action”.
“Malta is not alone. The whole Europe is standing by Malta in order to face and address this issue in a more efficient way,” he said.
The European Commissioner was reacting to a question from Times of Malta, on the fact that the level of EU support in recent years has been below expectations in spite of all the pledges made by his predecessors.
Mr Avaramopoulos acknowledged that in the past the EU as a whole had not given sufficient support to Malta. However, he said that the purpose of his visit was to convey the message that this is changing and promised to lobby for support in other member states.
Meanwhile EASO executive director Robert Wisser announced the successful completion of a pilot study aimed at extracting anonymous data from the information provided by asylum seekers, on the routes taken and the conditions they experienced on their way to Europe.
The study was conducted in Malta and Italy in collaborations with EU border agency (Frontex), Europol and Eurojust.
Though the findings will be published at a later stage, Dr Wisser said that in some cases the point of departure of their voyage was as far as Bangladesh or South Africa.
Asked about the sums paid by migrants, he said that these could vary between €1,500 and €6,000 each.
He said the project would help to draft a long-term strategic analysis to step up the fight against criminal organisations running these illegal trips.
On his part Commissioner Avramopoulos remarked that in some cases these criminal organisations were more equipped than certain states.
MEETING WITH PRIME MINISTER
In a meeting with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the commissioner warned that the EU could not afford to let Libya collapse as this would have serious security repercussions and aggravate irregular migration.
On his part Dr Muscat said that migration needed to be discussed in the context of security and peace in Libya. He added that the commitment taken in the last EU Council meeting to support UN initiatives for a diplomatic solution in Libya, was the strongest commitment by Europa so far.