The Maltese, Italian, French and German Interior Ministers, accompanied by the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, reached an agreement on Monday 23 September in Malta on a common scheme for the disembarkation of migrants rescued at sea. This temporary scheme will be presented on 8 October to the Interior Ministers of the Twenty-Eight and continues to be subject to a voluntary basis.
Covering only the central Mediterranean area and NGO vessels rescuing people at sea, the scheme is based on voluntary relocation to these participating countries - namely, at this stage, only France and Germany, as well as Finland, which has expressed its readiness to do so as well.
At their press conference, the Ministers did not detail the target audience, namely economic migrants or those who are actually entitled to international protection. Nor did they explain the system of reception ports, currently shared between Italian and Maltese ports and which will also be subject to a rotation system. But they insisted that this scheme would provide a solution to avoid situations such as those that have arisen in recent months, as migrants are forced to stay several days and even several weeks on a boat.
The arrival of a new Minister of the Interior in Italy, Luciana Lamorgese, thus contributed in part to unblocking the scheme that Matteo Salvini had not wanted to support in July in Helsinki, fearing, among other things, a flood effect.
At a press conference, Maltese Minister Michael Farrugia explained that the five officials had "started making history; now it will depend on the participation of other Member States". "The (common) paper will be presented to the other 24 Member States (on 8 October) and we will be able to see after this discussion which countries will be able to support this document or if further suggestions are needed", added the Minister.
Finland's Maria Ohisalo reiterated that the objective is to bring together "a maximum of Member States" around this scheme; in July, there were about ten potentially voluntary countries such as Ireland, Portugal or Luxembourg, countries that have occasionally helped to take migrants disembarked in Italy or Malta.
The French Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, for his part stressed that, in addition to this basis of work to be carried out at the October EU Council, "we want a more ambitious reform to help Greece, Spain and Cyprus, to help the initial countries of reception, but also the so-called secondary movement countries", such as France and Germany, he quoted, recalling that the agreement of the day only concerns "the reduced area of the central Mediterranean, for the time being".
The NGO Oxfam welcomed the outcome of this meeting as a positive step. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)