Four home affairs ministers gathered at Fort St. Angelo on Monday morning for the beginning of a summit dedicated to Migration.
Interior Ministers Michael Farrugia (Malta), Luciana Lamorgese (Italy), Hoorst Seehofer (Germany), and Christophe Castaner (France) have all met in Birgu for the meeting, which will also see the participation of the European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulous and the Interior Minister of Finland, who currently hold the EU Presidency, Maria Ohisalo.
The meeting is a direct initiative in an effort to find a solution for situations which are becoming more and more commonplace which involve migrants being rescued by NGO vessels.
A large banner with the words ‘EU, Get Your Ships Together’ adorned the bastions opposite the entrance to Fort St. Angelo. In a statement, Mission Lifeline – one of the NGOs engaged in rescuing migrants at sea – set out four demands which they would like to be taken into consideration during the meeting.
These four demands were namely for safe passage through the Mediterranean for all people fleeing their country, for the end of the agreement with the so called “Libyan coastguard”, for the end of the criminalisation of NGOs, and for the reform of the Dublin Regulations.
In the run up to the meeting, both France’s and Italy’s leaders Emmanuel Macro and Giuseppe Conte have said that immigrants saved in the Mediterranean should be split up automatically across countries in the European Union, and that countries who refuse to receive migrants should have a financial penalty imposed onto them.
A number of countries have said that they will back the reforms, but countries such as Hungary and Poland remain steadfastly against taking in any migrants.
Michael Farrugia meanwhile told The Malta Independent a week and a half ago that the ministers will be using the summit in an attempt to reach a common consensus about regulating disembarkations, relocations, and thresholds for automatic relocations if a country is under too much pressure due to numbers being disembarked.
He had noted that he hoped that the consensus reached during the meeting will be presented to the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg on 8 October.
Germany’s Seehofer meanwhile last week said that the meeting will look to work out a model for the distribution of refugees and migrants rescued at sea. He said that they will seek to develop a clear plan: “The new Italian government represents a great opportunity for Europe to create a concept when it comes to migration — in this case, rescued migrants. It would be a major mistake for the German government to miss such an opportunity.”
Seehofer was referring to the recent shift in government in Italy, where right-wing firebrand Matteo Salvini is no longer in government, and has been replaced as Interior Minister by the more neutral Lamorgese, who has already decided to let migrants land in Italy in one case since she took office.
The German Interior Minister said that his country is willing to take in 25% of all those rescued at sea by private organisations. AFP also report that France is willing to take in an identical number, while Italy is veering more to the 10% mark since they have already taken in thousands of migrants before.
Photos: Alenka Falzon
