Malta hopes to resettle immigrants to rest of EU

Malta hopes to resettle immigrants to rest of EUValletta, Malta  - Malta hopes to resettle all immigrants with legal status to other European Union member states through the first EU-wide relocation programme, the government said Friday.

Some of these refugees, about 2,000, including families and children, have been stranded on the tiny Mediterranean island for years.

During recent meetings in Malta, the government expressed its wish to European Commission officials to resettle all refugees, The Times of Malta reported.

Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said: "This should be acceptable from the European point of view particularly considering that, in November 2008, the member states agreed to take 10,000 Iraqi refugees based in third countries."

An unnamed Commission official told Malta's main newspaper that the island's demand was acceptable since it means that each member state will only have to take in some 70 refugees.

Brussels is preparing to submit its formal proposal on the tailor- made pilot project in two weeks' time. The programme caters for immigrants who have been given legal protection and excludes illegal immigrants.

The 27 member states will be asked to say whether they wish to take part in the project next month and, if so, how many refugees they would be willing to take.

So far, France is the only country to have made a concrete gesture when in July it took in 91 immigrants who had been granted legal protection by Malta.

Brussels sources told the newspaper that Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot, who is expected to end his mandate this October, has already presented the Swedish EU presidency with his ideas for rationalising the project.

He promised financial support for the countries willing to participate.

Malta says it cannot cope with the number of immigrants fleeing Africa and landing on the island, though arrivals are down this summer following the coming into effect earlier this year of the Rome-Tripoli pact.

Through the agreement, Libya has committed to stepping up patrols along its shoreline, which is often used by the mostly African migrants as a springboard to reach Europe. (dpa)