Ireland has committed itself to relocating a “large family” of “six to 10” refugees from Malta to show solidarity with the island.

Ireland’s Interior Minister Alan Shatter admitted this was a “small token” but his Maltese counterpart Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said Malta was still grateful for Ireland’s contribution.

This means 11 EU member states have so far declared their intention to participate in the Commission’s Eurema (European reallocation for Malta) pilot project, the first to be introduced by the EU and designed specifically for Malta’s needs. According to this project, for every refugee relocated to another member state, a €4,000 assistance package will be given to help in the process.

Despite this generous offer by the EU, few member states have so far taken up the initiative to show concrete solidarity with Malta’s disproportionate burden.

The majority of member states are still reluctant to make any pledges, particularly the large countries including the UK, Spain and France. Many of the pledges so far are just symbolic and do not amount to more than 10 relocations. The only considerable pledge made was by Germany which promised to take 100 refugees. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström admitted a few days ago that many EU member states have “no appetite” for burden sharing.

A total of 325 pledges were made to Malta during a special conference organised a few weeks ago in Brussels following the fresh influx of immigrants crossing over to the EU from Libya.

In the meantime, more than 1,300 sub-Saharan Africans and Libyans have come to Malta as a result of the Libyan conflict while another 2,700 refugees are thought to be living on the island waiting to find new pastures in the EU or the US.