Malta should withdraw the financial solidarity it showed debt-stricken EU members (such as Greece) after Brussels ditched a proposal to help in the relocation of migrants, according to a former prime minister.

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who now heads the Campaign for National Independence, an anti-EU political pressure group, this morning criticised the European Commission for going back on its pledge to propose a permanent voluntary scheme.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta became an attractive destination for migrants after it joined the EU because it was obliged to process their applications here, preventing them from moving on to other member states. He also warned that the EU's aim was to integrate migrants.

"The EU is forcing Malta to keep illegal immigrants here even though they have always wanted to go to other European countries," he said.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici urged the Government not to cooperate with Brussels by refusing to send the finger prints of migrants to a central EU data base and giving migrants who want to go to other members states the freedom to do so.

"The Government has to do this to safeguard the national interest," he said, warning that a large concentration of migrants would create "social discord".

In words reminiscent of the far-right, he insisted that migrants were a burden on the country's financial and health resources, posing a threat also to the labour market.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta had an obligation to save migrants who were in distress but "had no obligation to keep them here and integrate them".

He said migrant solidarity groups should stop insisting with the Government to integrate migrants and instead campaign in favour of the free movement of migrants across the EU.

CNI had collected signatures two years ago urging parliamentarians to stop illegal immigration to Malta, he added. "But a petition with 29,000 signatures never made it to Parliament because the Whips of both sides had refused to bring it forward," he said.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com