LUXEMBOURG: Malta’s Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg appealed to European Union counterparts yesterday to help share the burden of taking in African refugees amid warnings that southern EU states were overwhelmed by current flows.

Borg said he had presented plans to EU interior and justice ministers to evenly share across the entire 27-nation bloc the intake of those making their way to northern Mediterranean EU nations.

“The situation right now is a complete mess. It’s a free-for-all,” Borg said. He said his tiny island nation was unable to handle the hundreds of migrants it has to rescue in national and international waters off its coast with Libya.

“Each year, 600 migrants are dying on the threshold of Europe,” Borg said. “It is unbelievable that on the doorstep of Europe we are having this tragic situation and not enough is being done.”

Libya has become the latest launch point for thousands of poor Africans seeking a better life in Europe.

Borg said his country had taken in 350 migrants this year, 250 of those in the last two weeks.

Spain, Malta, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal have all appealed for other EU nations to show solidarity. However, other nations have been hesitant to give more than financial aid to help stop the flow.

Malta came under fire two weeks ago from EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini because of its reluctance to rescue 27 migrants in its waters.

EU officials want Mediterranean EU members to clarify whether they are applying international conventions and rules in rescuing people stranded at sea, following reports that coordinated efforts to deal with the recent flow of irregular migrants from Africa were not working.

Late last month, 27 migrants were left clinging to a tuna net for three days off Malta’s coast after being denied access to a Maltese fishing boat.

Two weeks ago, a French naval frigate found the bodies of 18 people believed to be migrants off the coast of Malta.

The incidents prompted angry statements from EU officials, and added urgency to EU efforts to launch new monitoring and patrol missions by the EU’s external borders agency, Frontex.

Patrols are to resume next week. However pledges to give the agency enough ships, planes and helicopters have not been met, EU officials said.

So far, only 10 per cent of 115 boats, 23 aeroplanes and 25 helicopters pledged have been delivered to Frontex, officials said, raising questions of how effective EU patrols will be as the flow of migrants increases over the summer across the Mediterranean.

“Unless there is more participation, there is a very good possibility that the patrols exercise of Frontex will not even start this summer,” Borg said. “The real issue is not who goes to (the) rescue... the problem is who will accept those migrants.”

The EU agreed last year to step up patrols off the coast of Africa, notably off Spain’s Canary Islands, to keep people from embarking on often dangerous crossings from sub-Saharan Africa in search of a better life in Europe. Many end up on overcrowded boats that capsize or sink along the way.

Sweden also has appealed for its EU counterparts to take in more Iraqi refugees, with about 50,000 people fleeing the country every month, according to the UN refugee agency.

The UNHCR has predicted some 40,000 are likely to reach EU nations this year, double the number last year.