EU keen to save immigrant lives, unsure how to help Malta

(LUXEMBOURG) - The European Union expressed determination Tuesday to save the lives of African migrants desperate to reach its shores but struggled to find ways to help frontline state Malta handle the problem.

The island EU nation, with a population of around 400,000, has rescued some 7,000 people in waters off its coast in the last five years, with scores picked up -- some clinging to tuna farm cages, others dead -- in May alone.

"We cannot tolerate people dying," German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaueble, whose country holds the EU presidency until the end of the month, told reporters after hosting talks with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg.

"We're not leaving Malta high and dry," he said.

Schaueble said that "suggestions on a system of sharing of responsibilities will be discussed" by experts from the 27 European nations next week.

"It was the most reasonable thing we could obtain today," he conceded.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini, meanwhile, urged the ministers to make good on promises to provide ships and aircraft to the bloc's external border agency Frontex.

Malta is to receive help patrolling its vast area of maritime surveillance when the agency launches operation "Nautilus" on June 25, in which France, Greece, Germany and Italy will also participate, until October.

Earlier, Maltese Interior Minister Tonio Borg appealed to his partners for help.

"The situation right now is a complete mess, it's a free for all," he said. "Each year 600 immigrants are dying ... on the threshold of Europe. The figure could rise again this year."

Several boats with illegal migrants from Africa have recently capsized in the waters between the Mediterranean island and Libya, and rescue efforts have been complicated by fights over whose territory they were in.

Eighteen bodies were found in the zone last month by a French ship.

"It is only fair that those immigrants who are saved are distributed on a rotational basis between the 27 EU member states," Borg told reporters.

"Temporarily those immigrants should go to the nearest European state until they are transferred to the designated country of destination," he said. The country of destination would be chosen based on size and population.

But Borg faced a tough task to convince his EU partners to help. Many agree on the need to save people, but few are keen to take responsibility for illegal migrants once they are safely ashore.

Some believe it would be better to work closely with the countries that people are fleeing or crossing to reach Europe, concerned that "burden sharing" might appear to immigrants as a "free ticket" to move deeper into the EU.

"It looks very difficult to me," said new French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux. "I can't see technically how it would be possible."

Schauble, who claimed that Borg had been satisfied with the EU response at the meeting, insisted that it was equally important to "cooperate with transit countries and countries of origin".

An EU diplomat said: "We must not give the impression that these people have an automatic right to be accepted into the EU."

But Borg brushed off claims that such people could be drawn into their perilous journeys by the possibility of a free flight to Paris.

"They first cross the desert ... and if they survive that they try to cross the Mediterranean and if they survive that then they are accepted or saved by the European authorities," he said.

Justice and Home Affairs Council 12-13 June 2007 Conclusions