Three families who were given protection by the Maltese government left for Portugal yesterday to start a new life, as a result of a responsibility-sharing agreement reached between Portugal and Malta, with the cooperation of the UNHCR, intended to reduce some of the burden Malta carries in the area of asylum and immigration.

The agreement was signed on 1 October in Lisbon between the Portuguese Minister for the Interior, Rui Pereira, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, Tonio Borg.

Malta has always contributed to safeguarding the needs of all those meriting protection, in spite of its limited resources. However, Malta, cannot address the mixed flows of irregular immigration that threaten the very principles of the international protection regime, on its own.

In this regard, in July, 2005, the Maltese government appealed vociferously to the European Union member states for assistance in the area of asylum, in particular to find durable solutions that improve the condition of refugees. In response, the governments of certain European members states like Holland, Germany, Ireland and Lithuania, together with the United States of America, realising how important it was for Malta to transfer some of the responsibility for refugees, have already hosted 100 of them from Malta.

The Malta Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, assisted in executing the selection process agreed upon by the two countries, and, in cooperation with the Portuguese Council for Refugees, helped the selected families to orient themselves to living in Portugal. The local IOM branch was responsible for the transportation arrangements to Portugal.