Strasbourg, 06/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - As announced (EUROPE 9166), on Monday evening MEPs with French Socialist Martine Roure showing the way denounced the “inhumane and degrading” conditions in which asylum seekers were being detained in Malta. “These detention conditions are violation of human rights and of the European directive on hosting refugees”, Ms Roure said, calling on the Maltese government to put an end “to its systematic detention of migrants as soon as possible”. The MEP explained that “it is the EU's duty to show solidarity and to share the financial cost of border management by calling on existing programmes such as ARGO and the Fund for Refugees”. She nonetheless added that “more indepth reform is needed as it is not a question of money”. In response to this, Commissioner Frattini announced that a first immediate measure would be made to address the situation in Malta with funding from the ARGO programme to help it deal with the large numbers of irregular migrants arriving at its external border. Out of the €2.7 million available in 2006 under the ARGO programme, some €500,000 may be earmarked for Malta for dealing with its border problems, a Community source states, explaining that this sum remains subject to the projects proposed by Malta. €120,000 in subsidies has recently been allocated by the Commission within the framework of ARGO 2005, a Maltese project to improve the organisation of refugee detention in centres. Franco Frattini states he has “heard the European Parliament concerns” but that he did not wish to amend the Dublin II Regulation aimed at determining the State responsible for examining an asylum request. Martine Roure again called on him to find a solution by correcting this legislation (EUROPE 9166). In her view, the legislation can place an unbearable burden on the countries to the south and east of the EU and has the adverse result of threatening the conditions in which asylum seekers gain access to asylum. Franco Frattini told MEPs that, over the next few weeks, he planned to “propose amendments to the European Refugee Fund (ERF) in order to enable Member States to access funds quickly and with a minimum of bureaucratic process”. The Commissioner stated that these amendments will allow “appropriate reception conditions for asylum seekers, including basic needs and fair and effective asylum procedures”. The proposal corresponds to the idea launched in October 2005 by the European Commission which suggested earmarking €20 million from the ERF to help countries face up to the growing flows of illegal immigrants (EUROPE 9054). This emergency fund will normally be made available for early this summer, just before immigration can peak again.
In a resolution, adopted on Thursday, the EP called on the Council to hold as soon as possible an extraordinary meeting of Justice and Internal Affairs Ministers in Malta and on the European Commission to free emergency financial aid before the arrival of the flood of illegal immigrants expected this summer. MEPs were unanimous in recognising that Malta's current problem did not concern that country alone, but the whole European Union. “When speaking with the immigrants on our visit to Malta we found out that none of these people intended coming to Malta in the first place, but rather wanted to reach mainland Europe. This goes to show how much it is a problem of the EU as a whole and not only of Malta's,” said Simon Busuttil (EPP-ED, Malta) after the vote. MEPs also called on the Council and Member States to help find an appropriate solution to current problems by sending groups of experts who could provide aid on granting the status of asylum seeker and advise on how to treat asylum seekers in accordance with European legislation. Parliament also called on the Commission to propose as quickly as possible the creation of an emergency fund for humanitarian crises in Member States in build an emergency mechanism into the 2007-2013 financial framework. Deploring the unacceptable conditions in which refugees in detention centres live, Parliament pointed out that Malta and the other Member States had to respect their commitment towards asylum seekers in line with international law. MEPs expressed solidarity with the people of Malta, the asylum seekers and the police forces, facing such a large-scale problem. After the vote, another Maltese MEP, David Casa (EPP-ED) said, “One person arriving in Malta is equal to 206 in Germany considering the different population sizes. Over 10% of Malta's law and order forces are devoted to addressing this challenge, the finances spent on providing for the irregular immigrants represents 1% of the country's general budget and annual arrivals in 2005 represented 50% of the country's birth rate. This is what make Malta such a particular case and why therefore particular attention is necessary”. Parliament nonetheless called on the Maltese authorities to reduce significantly the length of time immigrants spent in detention (see EUROPE 9166) and to apply the 2003 directive on minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers and asked the HCR and NGOs to have unlimited access to these centres to bring all the aid necessary to those in difficulty.