Malta complains of lack of EU support over immigrant problem

Malta complained Sunday about what it said was lack of support from its European Union partners in coping with an unprecedented wave of clandestine immigrants from North Africa.

Malta feels that the EU, which it joined two years ago, "lacks real commitment with regard to illegal immigration" to the island and is dealing with Malta with the "mentality of small countries, small problems and this is not acceptable," Foreign Minister Michael Frendo said in a statement.

"All attention is on Spain which is getting assistance and Malta is being left in the lurch," he said.

"The recent landings in Malta in the last 10 days are equivalent, with regard to population density, to over 50,000 illegal immigrants landing in Spain in the same period and the Canaries do not have that level of a problem", the minister continued.

Brigadier Carmel Vassallo, Malta's armed forces chief, said the number of clandestine immigrants stood at around 1,400 with some 1,300 lodged in army barracks.

Nearly 300 clandestine arrivals were escorted ashore last Wednesday at Valletta after their boats were intercepted at sea by Maltese patrol vessels.

Malta, formerly a British colonial possession, became independent in 1964. It has since become an important freight transshipment point, financial centre and tourist attraction.

The republic, in fact an archipelago of seven islands in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, lies directly south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya. Like Italy and Spain, it is a target of immigrants being smuggled into Europe.

With 400,000 inhabitants, it is currently the smallest EU member-state in both population and area.