Muscat’s immigration policy has failed – Busuttil

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has failed to deliver on his promises and none of his words HAD translated into action, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said today.

Giving his reactions to the European Council conclusions on immigration, Busuttil insisted that there was "nothing concrete and no timeframes were set".

"These conclusions approve 38 points which already exist in the asylum pact which dates back to 2008," he said.

Recalling how Muscat at the time had been critical of the pact, Busuttil asked how the PM could now be in favour of the same points.

"The conclusions make no reference to mandatory burden sharing, even though Muscat used to criticise the Nationalist government that had managed to relocate 2,000 migrants. With all his tough talk, today not one person has been relocated. And even though he did not manage to move towards mandatory burden sharing, he also failed in ensuring voluntary burden sharing," Busuttil said.

He went on to say that the council conclusions failed to refer specifically to Malta - thus drawing attention to Malta's situation - something which had only started to occur under a Labour government.

Busuttil said that no timeframes were set for the Commission to decide on the report and therefore it was known when decisions would be taken.

Even though the Prime Minister said it was positive that the European Commission had been tasked with setting timeframes, Busuttil said it was the Commission's role to be responsible: "How can that be deemed as a positive result if it's already part of the Commission's job?"

Asked whether he welcomed the possible repatriation of some 1,000 failed asylum seekers from Malta, Busuttil said this was already possible.

The Opposition leader insisted that everything which Muscat talked about - from Frontex's power to be able to carry return flights and an EU returns directive - were already in place.

"After 9 months, all Muscat did was to turn migration into a politically controversial issue and tarnished Malta's reputation. Xenophobia increased under his watch and this year we had the highest numbers of migrants reaching our shores," he said.

"Comments like 'wake up and smell the coffee' have proven that it's with dialogue and persuasion that you gain results and not by bluffing and passing stupid comments. I guess the coffee has turned cold by now..."

Busuttil pointed out that the EU had also stopped the Eurema relocation project - a programme specific for Malta - and Muscat did nothing about it.

"Notwithstanding his bluff, government has completely failed in its immigration policy. Cowboy tactics lead nowhere. What we need is a government that knows how to act."