Malta-Italy in angry exchange over migrants

Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici has reacted strongly to comments reported to have been made by Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni about Malta sending migrants to Italy.

The Italian minister claimed that a dossier showed that 40,000 migrants ended up in Italy because Malta did not intervene in some 600 cases.

“Mr Maroni can prepare as many dossiers as he likes. We are small and it’s very easy to perform an audit of what we’ve done in this case. But other larger countries should be subject to the same audits that we are subjected to,” Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

“If there is anyone who expects Malta to take illegal immigrants that are his responsibility, he can forget it,” the minister said.

The exchange followed a spat between the two countries after a Turkish-owned freighter picked up 140 migrants off Lampedusa on Thursday. Both Italy and Malta had refused entry to the ship. Italy said the rescue was made in Malta’s Search and Rescue Zone and the migrants should therefore be taken to Malta.

Malta said that in terms of international conventions, the migrants had to be taken to the nearest port, and its obligation was to coordinate rescue within the SAR zone.

The migrants were eventually landed in Sicily after Italy relented “for humanitarian reasons”.

“ How does anyone expect to change this overnight with 140 people are stranded on a ship just outside Lampedusa?” Dr Mifsud Bonnici asked.

He also denied that Malta had sent migrants to Italy.

“These persons leave from Libya and not Malta and none of those who have come to Malta intended to come here. Their final destination was always Italy.

“All boats have a right of innocent passage on the high seas, irrelevant of which country is responsible for the search and rescue area. There have been no instances of boats coming to Malta and then proceeding to Italy. The boats use this right of innocent passage and proceed to Lampedusa, Malta or directly to Sicily. The Maltese government has no authority to stop them from doing this. International maritime laws forbid this,” Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

He pointed out that Malta was involved in 380 operations in the past year and the number of illegal immigrants arriving here had almost doubled in a year.

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