MaltaMedia.com

Italian Foreign Minister Roberto Maroni has scheduled a meeting with Malta, Cyprus and Greece to ensure a common front on the issue of illegal immigration.

Maroni, a member of the anti-immigration Northern League, said that the four countries – which were mostly hit by illegal immigration – had to work together to ensure a common front to take on the problem.

Speaking on Radio Padania he said that these countries had to take the issue of illegal immigration to a European level, which now fell under a Czech presidency.

In the meantime, added Maroni, discussions on the monitoring of the Libyan coast were being carried out between the Foreign Ministries of Italy and Tripoli.

He described the state of the island of Lampedusa, where most of illegal immigrants end up in their quest to go to Europe, as a state of emergency and as such drastic measures had to be taken.

Maroni said that he was assured by the Libyan government that the patrols, treated as an alternative to the failed FRONTEX patrols by the EU, would start in January. He felt confident that such patrols will curb immigration.

Around, 2, 5000 illegal immigrants, intercepted within Maltese territorial waters in 2008, started out their voyage from the Libyan shores. There are around 4,000 illegal immigrants in open or closed centres in Malta.

A centre for the identification and expulsion was already in the process of being activated, Maroni said; adding that any new arrivals to Lampedusa will be repatriated within a few days.

However, this tough-line adopted by the Italian government has already raised the eyebrows of many humanitarian NGOs, fearing that immigrants’ rights will be trampled on.

The UNHCR has already appealed to the Italian government to respect the right of immigrants.

38 Egyptians were repatriated from Lampedusa on Tuesday.

Malta and Egypt already enjoy an agreement of repatriation. Indeed, just short of 1,000 Egyptians have been repatriated since 2004.