The EU has to recognise that the current influx of illegal migration from Libya was different to that of previous years so a unique response which went further than burden sharing agreements was needed, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said.

He said this afternoon that it was clear that the immigrants who arrived in Malta on Monday and Tuesday were desperate because of the situation in Libya.

Contrary to previous immigrants, they arrived with luggage, reflecting that they had been settled in Libya and they left because it had become a warzone.

The minister said that Malta was not yet full up but immigrants were arriving in large numbers and there was a limit to what the country could accept without the help of others.

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