EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom today said Malta needed to address the systematic use of detention of irregular migrants.

Addressing a press conference at the offices of the European Asylum and Support Office in Valletta, Commissioner Malmstrom said Malta must make sure that unaccompanied minors were treated well.

The commissioner said Malta had made major improvements over the past years in updating its migration policies and the European Commission would continue to support it as it has done in the past, she said.

Commissioner Malmstrom said Malta had not been left alone, adding it was wrong to speak of no support from the EU.

She said that over the past years Europe gave Malta generous support, particularly financial, and would keep doing so.

“We have been supporting Malta for years,” she said, adding that a number of reforms were discussed with Malta's deputy prime minister, but Ms Malmstrom stopped short of saying what the results of the discussions were.

Ms Malmstrom was speaking in the presence of executive director of the agency Dr Robert K. Visser during a visit to the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) headquarters in Marsa. Ms Malmstrom is nearing the end of her term in office.

It is unfair to say that Malta is not being assisted since the EU has been supporting it, she said.

Asked why she did not meet her counterpart, Home Affairs Minister Emmanuel Mallia, she said he is not available at the moment but pointed out that she has regular meetings with him in Luxembourg during council meetings. This newsroom is informed that Dr Mallia is away.

Earlier today, she met with Deputy PM Louis Grech who highlighted that the EU needs to emerge with concrete measures and act and not simply just express solidarity.

Ms Malmstrom is currently on an official visit to Malta to discuss measures to do with the influx of migrants arriving to Malta from war torn countries such as Syria, Libya, Palestine and Iraq. The aim of her visit to EASO was to discuss progress made by the office itself to enhance the implementation of the Common European Asylum System, a well as to discuss the latest asylum trends.

EASO is a regulatory agency, an independent European body which works closely with the national authorities responsible for asylum, the European Commission, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The European Commission provides vital support to EASO, including human resources, expertise, recruitment and logistical support

Ms Malmstrom said EASO is fully functioning when dealing with the issue of asylum, thanking the Maltese authorities and EASO for their sterling work.

She said the next issue is the migration problem due to conflicts in a number of countries.

“The clock is ticking and many countries are facing migratory pressures,” she said.

“I am impressed at the work done in such a short term by EASO,” she said, adding that we have to live up to our standards and make sure Europe can respond to the demands since the problem will not go away.

So called Frontex Plus missions

On what is being referred as Frontex Plus missions, she said that she is discussing the issue with Italian authorities but it is still not clear how it is going to be put into place as yet.

It will be a bigger operation than the past one but it is not Mare Nostrum, it is something different, she said. The scope and needs will be defined very soon by the Italians and Frontex, she added.

Frontex is an important mission but is only one part of dealing with migration, she highlighted.

Malmstrom expresses concern over EU citizens who joined ISIS

On the Islamic State, she said that it comprises a number of foreign fighters who have been living inside Europe. She said that it is an internal problem Europe has to tackle, further explaining that most fighters are not migrants who hop from one country to another, but are EU citizens.

“It is a threat of course,” she said.

July 2014 recorded highest level of asylum applicants since 2008 in EU plus countries: EASO

It has been noted by EASO that in July this year EU plus countries, meaning Member States plus Norway and Switzerland, recorded the highest level of asylum applicants since the beginning of Eurostat data collection in 2008. Syrians were the most numerous group of asylum applicants in July 2014.

Malmstrom meets Deputy PM