Valletta, Malta - Malta welcomed the EU Justice Ministers' decision on Thursday to use the small Mediterranean island for a pilot project intended to ease the immigration burden. The Commission has been given the mandate by member states to launch a pilot intra-community voluntary relocation programme for Malta.
The news was given in Luxembourg by EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot during an EU meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers.
Barrot said this was a very important step in Malta's fight against illegal immigration as it was not only the first time that such a programme would be introduced but it would also translate into action the statements of solidarity from member states.
EU sources told The Times of Malta newspaper that the programme should be up and running this summer and would provide the opportunity for refugees and those with humanitarian protection in Malta to resettle in other EU member states.
The EU programme will be modelled on a similar programme currently operated between Malta and the US.
Malta's EU Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici told the German Press Agency dpa: "The EU is replying to the plight of this country. It is a very good and significant step forward. The EU doesn't act fast, but it does act."
The issue was put on the front burner after Barrot recently visited Malta, where he saw the overcrowded detention centres, amid an unusual surge of immigrants from Africa during the winter months.
Mifsud Bonnici said that a number of EU states remained reluctant to accept any obligatory arrangement which would bind them to take a number of immigrants - but that did not mean that Europe could find no solution. He also called for the EU to rope in Libya and Turkey to try to stem the flow of immigrants.
He said the EU's border control agency Frontex will also be given a brief to act tougher with those immigrants who deserve no protection. The Warsaw-based agency will soon be making a proposal to start some of its regular joint return flights directly from Malta.
