The International Centre for Migration Policy Development, a key player in the migration field, has opened a regional office in Malta to coordinate migration efforts in the Mediterranean.

Foreign Minister George Vella and ICMPD director general Michael Spindelegger officially launched the new centre at a press conference in Valletta yesterday.

The focus of the ICMPD’s work will be supporting various ongoing migration dialogues as well as building relationships and offering technical assistance to countries in the Mediterranean.

Dr Vella said the opening of the office highlighted Malta’s international credentials on migration and would build on the agreements reached during the Valletta Summit late last year.

We need more control on borders and migration flows, which will put us in a position to receive people, register them and return them if they don’t qualify

He also highlighted the importance of this development in the light of concerns that migration flows may be shifting back from the Balkans to the central Mediterranean route. “The reasons for migration from Africa are different from those in the Middle East,” Dr Vella said. “Issues like climate change, poverty and water scarcity, as well as stability in Libya, must all be dealt with for the problem to be addressed.”

The new office, he said, would also create an opportunity for Malta to attract other similar institutions to set up shop on the island and develop proposals and solutions to be put into practice by governments and organisations.

Mr Spindelegger, a former Austrian foreign minister, said the new centre would benefit from the experience and contacts Malta had built up over years at the forefront of the migration crisis.

“The most important thing is to have the right information which enables you to be proactive rather than reactive,” he said. “We need more control on borders and migration flows, which will put us in a position to receive people, register them and return them if they don’t qualify for protection.”