Turkey is expected to open an embassy in Malta in the near future in a bid to strengthen bilateral relations, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said today.
Speaking at a press conference where he reviewed the work done by his ministry in the past year, the minister also announced that an EU-Arab League liaison office which will be set up in Malta in the coming months, will be housed at the former MCESD office in Floriana. The purpose of the Office will be to promote dialogue between the two blocs as agreed at a conference last year.
Dr Borg said agreement had been reached with Spain whereby Maltese officers will be deployed to the Spanish embassies in Belgrade and Algiers to process visas from those who wished to visit Malta. The facility may be extended to other Spanish embassies.
On migrants burden sharing, Dr Borg admitted he was not satisfied with how the process had worked so far and said more work had to be done. No sovereign state was obliged to take illegal immigrants and some countries were more forthcoming than others, the minister said. Malta was using its embassies to try to persuade more countries to take immigrants from Malta.
He said that so far just under 200 migrants had been taken by EU countries, with France committing itself to take 80. The US has taken 240.
The positive aspect of the burden sharing agreement was that the European Commission was involved in the process and it was encouraging member states to take migrants, Dr Borg said.
The minister said the United Nations High Commission for Refugees was reviewing its list of countries deemed to be dangerous and once Somalia was taken off that list it would be easier for Malta to repatriate Somalis arriving here.
Dr Borg said he was surprised by the misinformation in the Italian media during the recent migrants' standoff, particularly when they claimed that the migrants were in Maltese waters, whereas Malta was three times more distant than Lampedusa. Comments by EU Commissioner Jacques Barrot that showed that Malta acted correctly never featured inthe Italian media, which claimed, instead, that Commission President Barroso had told Malta to take the migrants, when nothing of the sort had happened. He said that a dossier prepared by the Italian authorities on migration problems with Malta was 'not credible'.
Dr Borg listed, among the highlights of activities in the past year, the Visa waiver agreement with the US, double taxation agreements with Switzerland and more recently, Jordan and agreements with Italy and Austria, whose embassies were handling visa applications for Malta.
He said that Maltese embassies over the past year had 800 requests for assistances by Maltese abroad, and 7,000 requests for information.
He said the Foreign Ministry was last year heavily involved in the release of Maltese oil worker Gorg Scerri, kidnapped in Nigeria.
The Foreign Ministry had also coordinated visits by a number of trade delegations abroad during state visits by the President..