Seventy-one immigrants chose to return to their homeland, settle down and set up their own businesses through a voluntary repatriation programme last year.

The voluntary repatriation programme is a partial solution to the country's enormous immigration problem, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday at a seminar that rounded off the first phase of the DAR project.

The 18-month pilot project, co-funded by the EU, has helped the male immigrants, from Ghana and Sudan, who were interested in going home to tap funds to help them settle down.

Describing it as a success, Dr Borg said another 70 immigrants have registered for the programme's second phase, which will be completed in three months.

Malta has to apply for more EU funds to send the second group of immigrants home, he said.

The government keeps track of the immigrants who have returned home and these have reported back saying they were happy and living a good life.

Several have set up their own business, which include a hair salon, bricklaying, a taxi service, selling mobile phones, sheep rearing and selling spare parts for cars.

Voluntary repatriation programmes are cheaper than forced repatriation, where each immigrant has to be accompanied by two security guards. Such repatriation is very difficult and it is extremely rare for a country to accept immigrants from other countries, Dr Borg said. Malta represents an "unintended stop-over" for immigrants who are looking for a better life and the army only picks up migrants in Malta's search and rescue area who send out a genuine distress call, he added.