EU allocates further €926,000 to Malta’s migration fund

Malta has been allocated a further €926,000 in EU funds after it agreed to relocate and resettle 145 asylum seekers.

Parliamentary secretary for EU Funds Ian Borg said in a statement that €18,104,877 are now available in Malta's Migrationand Integration  fund, that covers the financial period between 2014 and 2020.

Malta this week accepted the first 15 of the 131 asylum seekers, all Eritrean, that it has pledged to relocate from Greece and Italy, who have been particularly strained as a result of Europe’s migration crisis.

EU member states – with the exception of the UK and Denmark - in September agreed to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, but the take-up has so far been sluggish, with only 497 refugees relocated as of Monday.

The EU Council in July also agreed to resettle 20,000 people in need of international protection directly from a non-EU country. Malta in this respect has offered to pledge the resettlement of a further 14 people.

For each relocated and resettled person the EU shall compensate the state €6,000 and €10,000 respectively, bringing to the total of EUR 926,000 in EU funds allocated to Malta.