Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday defended Malta’s migrant detention policy noting it was possible not all were genuine asylum seekers.
He said migrants were landing without documentation and their identity could not be verified. The detention period gave the country “a cushion” to determine who such people really were.
For the first time, the EU is talking about the return of people refused protection
“There are some who may hail from extremist groups and pose a security threat, not necessarily to Malta but to the EU as a whole,” he said. He was addressing a Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (Meusac) meeting on the eve of today’s European Council summit in Brussels.
Dr Muscat said he did not expect anything extraordinary to come out of the summit.
He referred to vandalism in migrant centres and to the fact that there were about 1,000 migrants in Malta whose application for protection had not been accepted.
He believed that the detention services situation should be improved and referred to the Ombudsman’s report that the Ħal Far migrant reception centre was not covered by a permit. “There was no permit, let alone a proper plan on how it was developed,” he remarked. He warned that Malta could not continue facing a free-for-all situation on migration and was expecting the EU to do something about it.
“Now that we have something in black and white, it’s a step in the right direction. For the first time, the EU is talking about the return of people refused protection.
“We think that Frontex should coordinate repatriation flights and find solutions to the problem of people arriving without documentation,” he said.
Dr Muscat spoke about developments in Libya, including the interception by the Libyan coast guard of a migrant boat in its territorial waters “for the first time in many, many years”. “This was no coincidence,” he added.
Turning to second-pillar pensions, he said Malta would only enter into a contractual agreement with the EU to introduce them if this was a “mutual and voluntary agreement”, adding it would expect help to enact such measures.
Referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s call to revise EU treaties, Dr Muscat noted that Malta insisted that Brussels should not impose its will on areas such as taxation, leaving regulation entirely up to member states.