Sant: ‘EU needs continent-to-continent solution on migration’

Labour candidate and former prime minister Alfred Sant opposes the Dublin II regulations that sends back asylum seekers to their first point of entry to the EU, burdening frontier member states like Malta.

In a meeting with voters in Zejtun, the MEP candidate said he will support a continental solution on irregular migration, and a “tougher” repatriation programme for asylum seekers who have been refused international protection and refugee status.

Sant said that European countries “bear a huge responsibility for having destablised Africa in ways that now are forcing the populations there to seek security and jobs in Europe.”

“This is an area where ‘more Europe’ makes sense… we need to insist on fairer burdens, and the EU must get tougher with countries who are slow in repatriating their nationals who have been refused refugee status. “

Sant said that the EU also must develop a policy for legal migration. “Countries need migrants to keep their economy running.”

Sant also said the EU needed a long-term development assistance programme for central Africa in order to launch projects that can trigger economic growth. “This would ease the pressure for people there to leave their country and seek jobs elsewhere in order to help their families.”