EU states to resettle 323 asylum seekers, Labour dubs conference 'failure'

Updated at 8:25pm with Labour comments.

A total of 323 'pledges' have been by EU member states for the resettlement of asylum seekers, 1,000 of which found themselves in Malta due to the Libyan conflict in the past months.

Germany will take the highest number, 100, while the other countries that will take the asylum seekers are Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Denmark, Romania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Slovenia. Non-EU countries Norway and Liechtenstein have also pledged to take asylum seekers.

But the Labour party dubbed the pledging conference, which took place on the margins of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, a failure. "Government's attitude is humiliating, having to beg for help it did not recieve. Joseph Muscat was correct when he said the European Immigration Pact had been worthless," the PL said in a statement.

Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici would not say whether he was disappointed or not with the pledges made. "I have seen a positive reaction from countries that have been traditionally very sceptical. 323 is substantial given our emergency. Malta remains committed to reduce the number of asylum seekers to be resettled around Europe and urges member states to show solidarity."

The process will take some time since officials from the member states must process applications according to their national criteria.

Mifsud Bonnici also defended the Schengen zone and said any changes in rules should not be to the detriment of the spirit of the liberty afforded by the EU for free movement. "Any changes should not bring new burdens on member states already suffering pressure on their borders from migratory movements."

Earlier in the day, EU member states met to make their pledges to take refugees from Malta and the region in collaboration with the United Nations refugee agency.

“I hope this will be an afternoon for European solidarity,” Malmström said at an earlier press conference in Brussels where European home affairs ministers met.

Malmström reported a “very good meeting” on her communication on migration to the ministers and the European Parliament.

“Migration is very complex and must be addressed coherently: we can’t address visa control without border control, we can’t have an asylum and immigration policy without tackling integration, and we can’t tackle irregular immigration without a decent readmission policy,” Malmström said.

The Commissioner said the North African events had put pressure on the EU to act after some 27,000 refugees and asylum seekers fled the conflict and poured into the island of Lampedusa. Malta also received some 1,000 asylum seekers.

“But we must remember that 750,000 of those who fled Libya are still that region,” referring to the Tunisian and Egyptian borders that are now exploding with refugees fleeing the conflict.

“Very few people have come to Europe but enough to make us think about how we receive and deal with them,” Malmström said.

The EC’s communication on migration, which will also include provisions for the temporary closure of Schengen borders in cases of emergency, as a response to unilateral moves by France to close its borders to Tunisian migrants who were given temporary travel documents by Italy. A group was stopped at the French border, prompting the closure of the borders.

Malmström said the EC would defend Schengen as the guardian of the European treaties. “The fact we can travel from Malta to Finland without a passport is very significant,” she said.

“But we need better controls and governance of Schengen, established better guidelines of how to interpret the Schengen acquis, and only as a last resort and under very clear conditions can we reintroduce border control that must be regulated clearly.”

The majority of EU member states agree that such border control cannot be taken by one country unilaterally, because it might trigger a chain reaction.

Denmark defended its decision to reintroduce controls at its borders with Germany and Sweden, denying that it was restoring passport checks within Europe’s open internal borders.

As European interior ministers gathered for immigration talks, Danish Integration Minister Soren Pind said his government’s decision to deploy permanent customs officers was aimed at stopping cross-border crime.

“I see a lot of drama in the European press but I am going to state things like they are,” Pind told reporters, insisting that the Schengen agreement permitted such actions. “I think that when this model is studied carefully, everyone will see that it is, if I may quote Shakespeare, much ado about nothing,” he said.

He stressed that Danish authorities were deployed as customs agents, not border police, and that their job will be to scan vehicles for any criminal activities. “This has nothing to do with personal passport controls,” he said.

Earlier, Italian minister for the interior Roberto Maroni today lamented the lack of urgency from the part of the European Commission to effect a decision for a joint Frontex patrol of the Mediterranean with Tunisia.

“All we want is concrete action,” Maroni said. “But nothing happens with the urgency required of these cases.”

Swedish minister for migration Tobias Billstrom described the current wave of migration in the Mediterranean sea as “Libyan refugees”. “This wave is different from the labour migrants coming from Tunisia to Lampedusa. This calls for a concerted EU response and I am sure we will find common ground in such a response.”

Additional reporting by Karl Stagno-Navarra