EU Affairs
Malta to receive funds for migration problems
By MaltaMedia News
Sep 19, 2006, 17:28

Malta will receive aid from the European Commission in a bid to stem the influx of illegal immigrants from reaching the island. A total of Lm 1.41 million (€3.28 million,US$ 4.15 million) will be divided between Malta, Italy and Spain. In Malta and Lampedusa, Italy the funds will be used for maritime surveillance while in the Canary Islands, Spain they will be used to strengthen the first aid and reception centers for illegal immigrants.

The International Herald Tribune reported that the European Commission has also asked EU member states to contribute more money to the effort.

Earlier this month, Frontex air and sea patrols began operating around Spain's Canary Islands and along Africa's west coast. Similar patrols near Malta are expected to commence later this month.

In turn, a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that "Migrant smuggling from Africa to Europe is a crime crying out for justice." As illegal immigrants continue to reach European shores, including those Maltese, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) regional representative for West and Central Africa, Antonio Mazzitelli, called on governments to pursue and prosecute migrant smugglers.

According to Reuters the agency also branded human traffic from Africa to Europe as a ruthless multimillion-dollar racket which robs and murders some of the poorest people in the world and treats them like disposable goods.

The report revealed that migrants smugglers, either acting as organized transnational gangs or as locally based opportunists, are granting many as 300,000 Africans means with which to head towards Europe per year. Around 100,000 of these persons are intercepted.

However, these figures do not include those who lose their lives on the way, dying in the deserts or at sea.

The report is based on a UNODC mission which took place this summer in Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia, Mali and Sierra Leone. It has been made public at a time when thousands of African illegal immigrants are traveling for Europe in perilous desert and ocean journeys. In turn Canary Islands, Malta and Lampedusa, south European states like Spain and Italy are patrolling their coasts and strengthen their borders to counter the flood.

Speaking to Reuters Antonio Mazzitelli said "The networks take advantage of the poverty and hopelessness of people. They treat human beings as disposable items, they don't care if the migrants arrive or not.”

It estimated that the criminal business of "helping the poor access some of the world's richest markets" generated transfer fees alone in the order of Lm 101 million (€236 million, US$300 million) each year.

The UNODC report said illegal immigrants pay smugglers fees from Lm 130 (€ 303, US$385) to well over Lm 339 (€789 US$1,000) per person for passages from Senegal or Mauritania on boats bound for Spain's Canary Islands.

Non-African illegal migrants, such as Pakistanis and Chinese, are also increasingly using the African route, according to the report.

Read more about this issue on MaltaMedia's special feature:
Lanċa Ġejja u Oħra Sejra: Malta and its migrations.

See also:
Searches for missing illegal immigrants continue
By MaltaMedia News
Sep 18, 2006, 09:48 CET


Plan for joint sea patrols laid down
By MaltaMedia News
Aug 30, 2006, 10:58 CET


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