Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg yesterday told his EU counterparts in Luxembourg Malta will continue insisting on an EU emergency fund in view of the sudden influx of so many illegal immigrants.
He told the ministers assembled for their monthly EU meeting the fund would help member states faced with illegal immigrants trying to enter EU territory, as is the case with Malta, Italy and Spain.
During his intervention at the Justice and Home Affairs Council, Dr Borg said the recent events on the border between Spain and Morocco underscores the need of such a fund.
Speaking to The Times following the meeting, the minister said that just as the EU has emergency funds in order to help countries hit by natural disasters it should likewise provide for countries experiencing a sudden influx of illegal immigrants.
Although Dr Borg admitted that many member states and the Commission itself are still to be persuaded about the need of such a fund, he said Malta will keep pushing for it. Italy is supporting Malta's idea and now that Spain is also experiencing similar problems things are being understood better, he added.
At yesterday's meeting, the newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Gutteres, gave EU ministers a presentation of the prevailing refugee situation in the world and called on EU member states to respect their international obligations towards refugees whilst fighting illegal immigration.
Dr Borg thanked Mr Gutteres for acknowledging the problems Malta is facing and for praising the island's efforts in giving refugees a humane and dignified treatment.
Mr Borg said Mr Gutteres recently wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Frendo thanking him for the work Malta is doing with asylum seekers and refugees.
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini also briefed the home affairs ministers about an EU mission to the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which have been engulfed by waves of African would-be immigrants trying to enter the EU.
Spain's Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar told ministers that illegal immigration is not only a problem for Spain, being so close to Morocco, but a problem for the whole of the EU.
He said humanitarian aid was needed "first and foremost", adding that, in the long term, any solution would have to include a "strategy for cooperating on the development of a whole continent in despair, the African continent".