No holding camp

Malta says it will not be EU's migrant holding camp, from Reuters Africa:

Malta, which has been harshly criticised by the European Union over its handling of shipwrecked migrants, will tell the EU it will not be made a holding camp for people trying to get to Europe illegally. Foreign Minister Michael Frendo said the tiny Mediterranean island state will ask the other 26 EU member countries to take a share of migrants rescued at sea outside Maltese waters as they try to cross the sea from Africa. "The responsibility is of the whole EU," Frendo told Reuters by telephone. "I would not accept that Malta should be the holding place for the whole of Europe."

The EU's top official in charge of migration issues, Franco Frattini, told an Italian newspaper at the weekend that Malta had violated its obligation to save lives at sea when it hesitated in picking up shipwrecked migrants that Malta said were in Libyan waters. "You can't hide behind a type of legal-bureaucratic argument while letting people die," Frattini said. But he acknowledged Malta faced unique problems, being positioned between the southern tip of Italy and the north African coast and being so small...

EUObserver: European failure