A total of 13,000 migrants landed in Malta in the past seven years, and the vast majority were repatriated, Foreign Minister Toni Borg said today.

Speaking at a PN activity in St Paul's Bay, he defended the government’s detention policy on illegal immigration, and pointed out that Labour leader Joseph Muscat had abstained in a European Parliament vote which would have reduced the detention period to six months.

He said the government had been consistent in its immigration policy, granting protection to those who deserved it while the others were repatriated.

He recalled that during a European Parliament debate on immigration, the Nationalist MEPs voted against a measure which would have limited migrants’ detention to six months.

Dr Muscat, then an MEP, abstained.

“Therefore, were it up to Dr Muscat, the migrants would be roaming Malta’s streets six months after their arrival,” Dr Borg said.

He pointed out that 80 percent of the migrants who were landed in Malta had been in distress, and Malta had an international obligation to rescue such people. He praised the members of the AFM for their work, adding that of the 13,000 immigrants who had arrived in Malta in the past seven years, a vast majority had been repatriated.

Dr Borg also spoke on the PN line-up for the European Parliament elections. The PN candidates, he said, had been consistently in favour of Malta joining the EU, in stark contrast to the PL candidates,who including some who had been vociferous in their opposition.