Three families who arrived in Malta on boats in the past years yesterday left Malta for Luxembourg to start a new life.

This was possible after Luxembourg decided to join in the EU’s pilot project for the reallocation of migrants from Malta. The families comprise an Eritrean couple who were rescued from drowning in the open seas in 2005, and two Somali mothers and their two children who arrived in Malta in 2006.

The Luxembourg government will be helping these families to integrate themselves in the Luxembourgian society by offering them an assistance package including accommodation where they can stay for a year. They will also be given lessons to learn French. The Luxembourgian Family and Integration Ministry will be monitoring their progress closely.

This is not the first time that Luxembourg assisted Malta in asylum and immigration issues. Last year, the small country sent an aeroplane to be used in FRONTEX’s operation Nautilus. The Justice and Internal Affairs Ministry thanked the Luxembourgian government for its solidarity and the International Migration Organisation for its logistical support. The reallocation of this group of migrants came less than a month after a group of around a hundred migrants were moved to France, after the French government decided to take part in the pilot project for the second time.