No Mediterranean policing

Malta 'lashes out at EU migration policies', Dan Bilefsky reports for The International Herald Tribune:

Malta's foreign minister lashed out Monday at what he called the European Union's incoherent migration policies, saying that his tiny island nation was being asked to take in migrants for whom it is not legally responsible. Last week, 27 shipwrecked Africans said they spent three days clinging to the tuna nets of a vessel in the Mediterranean while Malta and Libya argued over who should rescue them. The incident prompted a sharp rebuke from Franco Frattini, the EU commissioner in charge of migration issues, who on Sunday accused Malta of hiding behind bureaucratic arguments while lives were being put at risk.

The criticism was echoed by the Council of Europe, a pan-European body that works to promote human rights, which called on the Maltese authorities "to soften their stance on providing assistance to irregular migrants whose lives are in danger." But the Maltese foreign minister, Michael Frendo, retorted that the African refugees had spent only a day clinging to the tuna nets. He said Malta was not responsible under international law to take in the migrants since they were in the search-and-rescue area of Libya. He stressed that Malta had received assurances from Libya that it would rescue the migrants, who were eventually picked up by the Italian Navy. "If the European Commission is sincere in its indignation, then it should push other EU countries to share the burden," he said. "Malta cannot become a holding area for all of Europe."

More international reports; Reuters: Not a policeman of the Mediterranean; Malta under fire; Army chief attacks Frattini