The responsibilities of Frontex should be widened to include the repatriation of illegal immigrants who did not deserve refugee and humanitarian status and getting these people the necessary documents, Malta and Italy are proposing.
Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici told journalists on his arrival in Malta from Brussels where he had a meeting with his Italian counterpart Roberto Maroni, that Malta and Italy were pushing the EU for action on three issues.
They called on the EU to draw up a real and strong programme with Libya, from where the illegal migration problem originated, to expand Frontex, which coordinates operational cooperation between member states in the field of border security, and to draw up of a relocation policy at EU level.
Both ministers lamented that there was a lack of interest in the problem from other EU countries and stressed the need for mandatory burden sharing. Malta and Italy had the common aim to put the EU under pressure to take action, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.
The ministers' meeting followed a diplomatic incident between the two countries when both refused entry to a Turkish cargo vessel which had taken on 140 immigrants in distress a few days ago. Malta had argued that Lampedusa was the nearest safe port and Italy that the migrants had been taken on in Malta's search and rescue area. The migrants were eventually accepted by Italy.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said this afternoon that this case was now closed. However, when asked what would happen if a similar incident happened, he said he expected international law, which had been followed for years, to continue being followed. This, he said, did not need to be clarified, it was clear enough and Malta had been right in its actions.
The minister acknowledged that even Italy had a problem with illegal migration and that it was also under pressure especially since illegal immigrants in Italy only spent 60 days in detention.
When 600 Tunisians landed in Lampedusa recently, the Tunisian government wanted 100,000 euros for each one repatriated, he said.