Nederland helpt Malta met opvang van asielzoekers (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Netherlands has agreed to take refugees from Malta, following the tiny island state's repeated calls for EU help with the boat loads of Sub-Saharan immigrants arriving on its shores.

As a first step, the Netherlands will receive 30 refugees from the Mediterranean island group, with Dutch immigration authorities also offering to train their Maltese counterparts on handling migrant flows.

"They have understood our position, and have agreed voluntarily to help us without anything in return", the Maltese foreign minister Michael Frendo told EUobserver on Friday (28 October), adding that media and political discussion of EU states facing immigration probelms has been somewhat unfair recently.

"If Spain has a problem with Ceuta and Melilla, we have a crisis here in Malta", he said.

"Italy, Malta and Libya, at the very heart of the Mediterranean Sea need assistance, and it is a matter for the whole of the EU and not for the three countries alone", he continued.

The Czech Republic has also announced that it is willing to help Malta, while Ireland and Germany have also responded positively to the Maltese call.

The island of Malta has 400,000 inhabitants but has received 5,000 refugees since 2002, a small sum on paper, but an enormous burden for the country, foreign minister Frendo indicated.

"With a population of 400,000 people, for us to receive one immigrant is like Italy receiving 140", he said.

Tokens of solidarity

A spokesperson for the EU justice commissioner, Franco Frattini i, said that bilateral agreements between member states were welcomed by the commission, although other measures will be needed to get a grip on illegal immigration at EU level.

"We see these agreements as tokens of solidarity between member states, but re-settlement does not solve the issue in itself", he said.

The commission is rushing to sign a "readmission agreement" with Morocco before the end of the year, and has also shown interest in starting negotiations with Algeria, a country from which large numbers of Sub-Saharan immigrants reach Morocco on their way to the EU.

In readmission agreements, countries pledge to accept their emigrants back home.

Russia has already signed such a deal, and Ukraine might soon follow suit.

Meanwhile, EU leaders gathered in Hampton Court, UK, on Thursday showed support for a Spanish-French proposal on tackling illegal immigration, releasing €400 million to finance the plan.

The commission plans to take the best bits of the various initiatives to establish a pan-EU policy on the subject, a spokesman said.