Brussels, 10/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 9 July, the tension mounted between European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström and Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat whose comments on refoulement of migrants who arrived from Libya on Tuesday morning provoked both anger and concern from the Swedish commissioner.
On the night of Monday and Tuesday morning, the Maltese authorities rescued three boats that had left Libya with 300 people on board. On Tuesday morning, the Maltese prime minister announced that he would be sending them back to Libya by plane.
Malmström said: “I have learnt with great concern the statements from the Maltese prime minister about the possibility to send back persons recently arrived to Malta. I would like to stress that, according to EU and international obligations, all people arriving in the EU territory are entitled to file an asylum request and to have a proper assessment of their situation”. She added that the Commission “will use all the tools at its disposal to make sure member states fully respect their obligations in this regard”.
The Maltese prime minister subsequently toned down his remarks and indicated that Malta would apply the European Commission decisions on immigration. Addressing parliament, he said that “we will respect the decision. We raised our voice so that we would be taken into account. The situation can no longer be tolerated”. A few minutes earlier, however, according to AFP and before receiving the European response, the Labour Party prime minister announced that he would be sending back these illegal immigrants, with the exception of children, their parents and the physically infirm - a total of 45 people.
Maltese NGOs, members of the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) alerted the European institutions in the afternoon and warned against any return of the migrants, who could face torture and ill-treatment, which would mean that Malta was contravening international law.
Malta is one of the countries that requested greater solidarity in the EU during the negotiations on the “asylum package” and obtained a programme for relocating refugees who arrived on its territory to other member states, particularly Germany. On Tuesday, Commissioner Malmström restated her services' willingness to provide assistance to the small island and pointed out that the Asylum Support Office, based in Valetta, could also provide support. (SP/transl.fl)