Noel Grima

The asylum seekers arrived by chartered flight last night and were taken to detention centres.

They formed part of a larger group of asylum seekers whose boat was forced by heavy seas to seek shelter south of Malta’s west coast cliffs. While some 100 of those on board the packed boat accepted to land in Malta, 94 insisted they wanted to go to Italy, since the asylum seekers in Italy are treated differently from Malta: they are not detained and are provided with just a piece of paper telling them they must leave the country.

But when their boat was allowed to leave the Maltese territorial waters, they ran into a heavy political storm in Italy.

The Italian coalition government has long been sensitive to claims that it is encouraging illegal immigrants through the lenient way in which it receives them. The daily paper of the Lega Nord, La Padania, for instance, on Monday had a huge heading: “Malta shuts them (in detention centres) while Italy frees them”.

The Italian government thus reacted with fury at the boatload of asylum seekers which reached Pozzallo on Saturday night. Next day’s Corriere della Sera entitled its front page: Malta’s jest.

The Italian government promptly insisted that according to international law and to EU law, the asylum seekers must be taken in by the first country they get to, in this case Malta.

The Maltese government vainly tried to argue that it had tried to persuade them to come to Malta but they had insisted they wanted to go on to Italy. The Maltese government said it did not want to use force against the asylum seekers.

It also argued that Malta was obliged to take them all in if they were in danger of dying, which was not the case as they continued on their way to Italy.

But the Italian government stood steadfast and after a week’s arguments and counter-arguments, the Maltese government had to give in and take them back

Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and Home Affairs Tonio Borg was quoted as saying yesterday that once these asylum seekers arrive in Malta, their status will be processed to see whether they are liable for assistance from the Maltese Government. It has not yet been decided whether these persons, most of whom are believed to be Eritreans, should remain in Malta or whether they should be repatriated.

Most probably, Dr Borg said, many of these immigrants have the right for protection.