A total of 442 people were returned to Malta from other EU member states through the Dublin II Regulation between 2010 and 2012, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström confirmed in reply to a question tabled in the European Parliament by Greek MEP Georgios Papanikolaou.

The Dublin II Regulation determines which EU state is responsible for processing an asylum claim and for that individual’s stay in Europe as a protected person. The state responsible is usually the EU country where the person first arrived. The rule has been a long-standing bone of contention between Malta and the European Commission.

In reply to the MEP’s question asking how many people had been returned to Mata, Commissioner Malmström confirmed Eurostat data, which finds that 442 people were transferred during the 2010-2012 period to Malta from the EU Member States and the countries associated to the Dublin acquis – Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Two hundred and twenty-two people had been returned to Malta in 2010, 142 in 2011 and 78 in 2012. She added the proviso that this data was compiled on the basis of information provided by member states and the countries associated to the Dublin acquis, and that all of these states had provided the required data for a certain year; however, not all the information received has been fully processed by Eurostat.