Dutch helping hand

The Netherlands has agreed to take refugees from Malta, Teresa Küchler reports for Euobserver.com:

..As a first step, the Netherlands will receive 30 refugees from the Mediterranean island group, with Dutch immigration authorities also offering to train their Maltese counterparts on handling migrant flows. "They have understood our position, and have agreed voluntarily to help us without anything in return", the Maltese foreign minister Michael Frendo told EUobserver on Friday (28 October), adding that media and political discussion of EU states facing immigration problems has been somewhat unfair recently..

The Czech Republic has also announced that it is willing to help Malta, while Ireland and Germany have also responded positively to the Maltese call..."With a population of 400,000 people, for us to receive one immigrant is like Italy receiving 140", he said.

A spokesperson for the EU justice commissioner, Franco Frattini, said that bilateral agreements between member states were welcomed by the commission, although other measures will be needed to get a grip on illegal immigration at EU level. "We see these agreements as tokens of solidarity between member states, but re-settlement does not solve the issue in itself", he said..

Meanwhile, EU leaders gathered in Hampton Court, UK, on Thursday showed support for a Spanish-French proposal on tackling illegal immigration, releasing €400 million to finance the plan. The commission plans to take the best bits of the various initiatives to establish a pan-EU policy on the subject, a spokesman said.

Illegal immigration: Italy - Malta collaboration