The European Parliament has passed a new law establishing Rapid Border Intervention Teams, a readily-deployable team of experts skilled in border control and geographical knowledge that would come to the aid of member states facing particular migratory crises.

In Malta’s case, such teams would be brought in to

support the Maltese authorities, should they become overwhelmed by migrant flows. They would lend assistance on matters such as the difficult task of identifying and verifying the nationalities of migrants, who more often than not travel without documents, and on a range of other technical and operational matters.

Maltese European Parlia-mentarian Simon Busuttil, a long-time champion of the establishment of such teams of experts, described the new law as a “solidarity instrument” in that assistance from fellow EU member states in times of emergency has now been made mandatory.

In his parliamentary intervention on Wednesday evening, Dr Busuttil observed: “This solidarity is compulsory, it is not optional. This makes it real solidarity. Solidarity is not like charity, which is voluntary; it is a binding commitment.

“Thanks to this law, countries facing emergency situations on immigration will start to feel that they are no longer completely on their own.”

While citing the new law as a “good step forward”, Dr Busuttil warned that “on its own, it is not enough to overcome the challenge of illegal immigration”.

He added that public expectations should not be artificially raised, since the law in question would not solve the multi-faceted issue, which requires a multi-faceted approach.

Dr Busuttil called for a further strengthening of the EU’s southern borders, and called on the European Commission to press forward with other initiatives such as a communication issued last November on strengthening the EU’s southern maritime borders.

He added: “Let us not forget that external border control is in the interest of all member states and not just the countries that are facing difficulties. And once it is in everyone’s interest, it must also be everyone’s responsibility, a shared responsibility.”

The establishment of Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABITs) was approved by the EU’s home affairs and justice ministers last Friday and the EP vote has now formally endorsed the Council’s position, allowing such teams to be formed.

The new law will see all 27 EU member states contributing to a pool of 450 national experts skilled in individual aspects of border control and with specific geographical knowledge.

Teams of such experts, which will be coordinated by Frontex, the EU border control agency, will be made available to EU member states facing “urgent and exceptional strain” from irregular migration movements and will be deployed within five working days.

The rapid border intervention teams will complement the work of the European Patrols Network (EPN) along the EU’s southern maritime borders in the Mediterranean as well as CRATE (Central Records of Available Technical Equipment), FJSTs (Frontex Joint Support Teams) and other joint operations to be carried out between the agency and key member states this summer.