Pleas for help

Writing in The Financial Times, Fidelius Schmid in Valetta and Sarah Laitner in Brussels discuss Malta's pleas for help:

..Although only 1,800 immigrants came from Africa last year, the government in Valetta argues that, relative to the country's size and population, this is an enormous number. "It is as if 280,000 people had landed in Germany last year", Mr Gonzi said. Malta is slightly less than twice the size of Washington DC and its population is 400,000. So far this year more than 750 immigrants have arrived, according to the government. More are expected as the summer progresses.

Xenophobia was rising in Malta as a result of the influx, Mr Gonzi warned. "Integrating them [the immigrants] in the community is impossible. It is impossible to provide housing and schooling for them. The pressure on our system is enormous." Valetta lobbied last month for the EU's other 26 members to share the burden but some member states are wary of taking in those who are picked up at sea. Countries such as Germany fear that if they accept illegal immigrants that arrive in Malta or elsewhere it could give others an incentive to make the journey to Malta as a way of getting to northern Europe.

Mr Gonzi said he was confident that Portugal, which took over the EU's rotating presidency on Sunday, would push for an immigration policy that would relieve Malta of some of the burden it felt it had to deal with. "There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for anyone to refuse to provide solutions on a concept we are discussing which is burden-sharing," he told Financial Times Deutschland. "The history of the European Union is about solidarity. This is a particular moment when the EU needs to continue to give life to this value. "This is a massive problem and it is not about Malta – it is about the future of the the European Union."...