Malta wil stringenter Europees asielbeleid (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Malta is fighting to change the conclusions of this week's meeting of EU leaders to get stronger wording on illegal immigration.

The small island, which has seen hundreds of immigrants from Africa and is having trouble coping, has been pressing other member states for EU-level support on the issue.

At the moment, the summit's draft conclusions call for more cooperation with countries of origin and transit of illegal migrants.

But the Maltese government is insisting member states take a stronger stand and call for help to be directed urgently to those countries with extensive sea borders, and so most vulnerable to the problem.

"It is also evident that certain sea areas, like the Mediterranean in our case, are much more vulnerable to illegal immigration than other sea borders," Maltese foreign affairs minister Micheal Frendo was reported as saying by Maltese media.

"That is why we are insisting that EU assistance should be directed particularly at these areas," Mr Frendo added.

Valetta intends to push for a concrete date for a future conference on illegal immigration in Tripoli, with the meeting set to include countries such as Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia from where many of the immigrants come.

Malta, along with Libya, one year ago asked for a high level meeting on illegal immigration to take place in Tripoli, but the idea never came to fruition.

"Malta has already stated that these countries of origin should have also been included in the Morocco conference as well," a spokesperson for the Maltese ministry of foreign affairs told EUobserver.

The Morocco conference is a ministerial conference on illegal immigration on 10 July but it does not include any of the African immigrant countries.

Malta's concern reflects the fact that once again this summer Mediterranean countries are being faced with another big wave of immigrants.

Thousands of migrants leave from West Africa's coast in an attempt to reach the Canary Islands and Spain, while others leave from North Africa towards Italy and Malta.

A spokesperson for the Maltese interior ministry said that this year more than 300 illegal immigrants have already landed on Malta - a large number for an island of just 400,000 inhabitants.

The authorities are also concerned by the large number of people who have lost their lives in the seas between Libya and Italy.

"A conservative estimate is that in 2005 more than 500 persons lost their lives while trying to cross from North Africa to Europe," the spokesperson said.