‘We stamped our feet’ - Muscat in Rome says Malta must get migration numbers right

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today defended his actions over the past week to attract attention to the migration phenomenon at Malta's shores, despite attracting criticism for his attempt at pushing back 45 migrants to Libya without being able to make a claim for asylum.

"Malta is worse off than Lampedusa because migrants cannot move to mainland Italy from Malta," Muscat told the foreign press in Rome, where he is meeting Italian prime minister Enrico Letta.

"We managed in our goal to attract attention to a problem that is unsustainable: 2,000 migrants in the last 12 months, equivalent to 1 million migrants arriving in Spain or Germany," Muscat said.

The prime minister said Malta "must get its numbers right on migration", saying that the "numbers are unsustainable."

"I won't go into a quota system... we need to spread out the numbers throughout Europe. We need to help Libya strengthen its borders. The victims are asylum seekers but there are criminal gangs who are taking advantage and draw profit. We need to tackle this issue too, as we cannot allow these gangs to earn millions at the expense of migrants," Muscat said.

"I will not talk on apocalyptic scenarios," Muscat said when asked whether Malta had a tipping point. "We just stamped our feet and told Europe the situation is serious."

The prime minister said Malta wants to change EU rules on migration and rope in Libya to cooperate on migration control. "Libya has a problem with its southern borders and Libya must be helped by the EU," Muscat said, although he did concede that Libya is not in need of financial assistance.

The prime minister also denied having attempted to carry out a pushback that was stopped at the eleventh hour by the European Court of Human Rights.

"We chose our words carefully. We said all options were being considered, and we showed Europe that the problem had not left us. The hypocrisy must stop. Empty words on solidarity are no longer enough. Europe was quick in rescuing banks but too slow in rescuing people."

Muscat today will be discussing with Letta on a common position on immigration. He told the press that the Maltese government is keen on integration but that the European centre-left was allowing the far right to make security and migration their own issues. "We are totally committed to fight xenophobia but we must take this problem seriously and not brush it under the carpet. People in Malta are concerned and speak about migration. They might be concerned about the impact of migration culturally but I believe they are more concerned with the immediate impact. The Maltese are made up of different races and there is no problem with multiculturalism. However we just cannot cope with these numbers."

Muscat also spoke of the need for a "serious integration policy" but hinted at the need to "get the numbers right".

"At the moment we face a national security problem... people are stuck in Malta at the moment and most of them say that if they had known what the situation is they would not have come to Malta."