Brussels, 12/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - With some 70,000 crossing the Mediterranean to seek asylum in Europe in 2008, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has repeated its call to EU countries to help those who need international protection. These immigrants have “few opportunities to enter the EU by regular means,” said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond at a press briefing in Geneva on Friday 9 January. “Thousands of people threatened by persecution and serious human rights violations in their home countries have no choice but to take the dangerous sea route,” he added. In 2008, out of an estimated total of over 67,000 people, mostly from Somalia and Eritrea, reaching Europe by sea, some 38,000 made landfall in Italy and Malta alone, largely after passing through Libya, according to the UNHCR. The majority sought asylum, with more than half the total number eventually judged to be in need of international protection. In the face of this lasting situation, the UNHCR has renewed its call to states not completely to block access to those seeking protection in Europe. The UNHCR says that those who arrive in the EU seeking asylum should be allowed to land in a safe place, where they can be given information about their rights and have a genuine opportunity to apply for asylum. The interior ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta are due to meet in Rome on Tuesday 13 January to discuss illegal immigration by sea. The issue might also be debated at the informal meeting of European interior ministers in Prague on 15 January. The small Italian island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, saw a record 500 illegal immigrants arrive on Saturday. To try to find solutions to this problem which affects the whole of the European Union, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has announced that he would organise a G8 meeting for interior and justice ministers on the island. Maroni has given assurances that the agreement between Rome and Tripoli, which provides for joint sea patrols, would become operational in the next few weeks. (B.C./transl.rt)