Responsibilities of the EU's border patrol agency should be widened to include repatriation of immigrants who fail to qualify for refugee and humanitarian protection, according to proposals made Italy and Malta that were disclosed today, dpa reported. Frontex should be roped in to get such immigrants the necessary documentation for repatriation, the Maltese and Italian governments said following a conciliatory meeting in Brussels. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and his Maltese counterpart Carm Mifsud Bonnici met in the wake of a diplomatic spat after both countries last week turned down a Turkish cargo vessel which had rescued 140 would-be illegal immigrants. Malta had argued that Lampedusa was the nearest safe port while Italy insisted the immigrants should be taken to Valletta since they were found in Malta's search and rescue area. The immigrants were eventually accepted by Italy. But in a bid to restore the traditional friendship, Italy and Malta joined forces to accuse other EU countries of showing little interest in the immigration problem and insisted on the need for mandatory burden sharing, Mifsud Bonnici told journalists on Friday. Malta and Italy had agreed on a common aim to put the EU under pressure to take action, Mifsud Bonnici said. The two ministers called on the EU to draw up a programme with Libya, from where the problem of illegal migration is believed to have originated, and to expand the operations of Frontex. Mifsud Bonnici maintained that Malta was right in refusing to take in the rescued immigrants last week, saying it was merely abiding by the same international obligations it had practiced for over 40 years. On Tuesday, Maroni accused Malta of failing to rescue about 40,000 immigrants since 2004, and that it was dumping the problem on Rome. Malta has strongly rebutted the claims.
