Brussels is today expected to announce a number of measures, including some affecting Malta directly, to tackle migration problems in the Mediterranean, Times of Malta is informed.

Among the initiatives, to be unveiled by Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU Executive will propose the triggering of an emergency response mechanism to assist Italy, Greece and, possibly, Malta and to expand the Frontex-led search and rescue mission to also cover Malta’s vast search and rescue area.

Commission sources told Times of Malta yesterday the concrete action to be taken would involve three main initiatives: the relocation of about 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean nationals in need of international protection in EU member states; the resettlement within EU member states of 20,000 people from outside the EU in need of international protection; and a reinforced operational plan for the Frontex mission in the Mediterranean – codenamed Triton – extending to the borders of the Maltese search and rescue zone to cover the area of the former Italian Mare Nostrum operation.

Malta would take 175 people from Italy and 117 from Greece

According to the Commission’s proposals, which need the green light of the majority of member states to be implemented, Malta will also have to take part in the relocation and resettlement schemes being proposed and is expected to share some of the burden.

It will be proposed that, of the 40,000 Syrians and Eritreans to be relocated, Malta will take 175 people from Italy and 117 from Greece – a total of 292 individuals.

With regard to resettlement, Malta is being assigned a total of 121 people.

The relocation and resettlement mechanisms will have to be implemented over a two-year period, and member states will be financially assisted through the EU budget.

All member states, with the exclusion of Greece and Italy, will have to participate in the proposed new burden-sharing mechanism. However, the UK and Ireland have ‘opt-in’ rights under the EU treaties, meaning they only participate if they so choose. Denmark has an ‘opt-out’ right, so it will not participate.

Malta is to be allocated the lowest number of asylum seekers, while Germany – the largest EU member State – will take the highest number – relocating 8,763 Somalis and Eritreans and hosting another 3,086 under the resettlement scheme.

Apart from the burden-sharing scheme, the Commission is expected to implement other significant measures.

A new EU action plan against migrant smuggling is being proposed, setting out concrete action to prevent and counter migrant smuggling.

Actions to be taken include drawing up a list of suspicious vessels; dedicated platforms to enhancing cooperation and exchange of information with financial institutions; and cooperating with internet service providers and social media to ensure internet content used by smugglers to advertise their activities is swiftly detected and removed.

Brussels is also issuing new guidelines on fingerprinting, setting out a best practices approach for fingerprinting newly arrived applicants for international protection.

“Hotspot” teams from the Malta-based European Asylum Support Office, Frontex and Europol will work on the ground to swiftly identify, register and fingerprint incoming migrants and assess those in need of protection.

Why share the burden?

According to the European Commission, Malta has a similar geographical situation to Italy and Greece and has had to deal with emergency situations in the past.

However, Brussels thinks the prevailing situation in Malta – because of relatively small numbers reaching the island over the past two years – is not comparable to that of Italy and Greece and the island has therefore not been included as a beneficiary in this proposal.

However, it is expected that the Commission will continue to monitor the situation in Malta closely and would be ready to trigger a similar relocation mechanism should an emergency situation arise here.

The Commission will declare the application of the mechanism suspended for Italy and Greece in the case of countries experiencing an emergency of their own, meaning Malta will not be obliged to take in persons from the two countries if it is faced with a sudden influx of third country nationals.