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Karl Schembri
The coming summer is expected to escalate immigration troubles for Malta as new regulations will require countries to host immigrants in distress in their search and rescue region, an obligation which Foreign Minister Michael Frendo warns is impossible for Malta to uphold (see interview, page 20)
According to the amended Search and Rescue Convention, effective from 1 July this year, every country would be required to host immigrants in its rescue region or to coordinate their landing in a safe place – a nightmarish prospect for Malta given its vast rescue area extending from the tip of Tunisia to Crete.
Malta is resisting the amendments but that still leaves it on its own to negotiate every case of boatloads of immigrants in distress passing through the region, as opposed to the present regulations that oblige the nearest port of call to coordinate rescue.
“It is a worrying situation,” Frendo says in an interview with MaltaToday. “We don’t agree with this clause. We’ve made our position very clear, we’ve made our reservations and therefore we’ll have to see how best to react in a way that is least harmful to our country. If you were to take this literally it would mean that anybody passing through from near Greece would have to be picked up by us, and we just don’t have the resources to do that. So there are practical things on the ground, we don’t have the resources to do that. We are a very serious country and we have always shown a lot of care and understanding, but this is certainly a major concern.”
Frendo said that together with Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg he will be looking “at the situation as it arises in July” to act accordingly, although prospects of Malta being requested to intervene whenever immigrants are in distress in its rescue region remain real.
About Cabinet’s decision to shoot down Borg’s proposal of shrinking Malta’s rescue region by around 70 per cent last year, Frendo said this was “still under discussion” although there were “many other considerations” to be taken into account.
The new clauses will impose upon governments an obligation to find a place of safety for every case of immigrants in distress within one’s search and rescue region.
This would mean Malta would have to recover and host immigrants found as far as the island Crete, or negotiate their accommodation abroad with other governments on a case by case basis – a daunting task made worse by the immensity of the search and rescue region spanning over 260,000 kilometres.
“It will be one continuous headache after 1 July,” an AFM officer told MaltaToday.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
Links: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/10/09/top_story.html
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/02/20/t4.html
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