France has promised take another group of 100 refugees from Malta next year, in addition to the 99 it had already agreed to absorb from the immigrant-hit Mediterranean island, dpa reported. Addressing a news conference in Malta, French immigration minister Eric Besson urged other EU states to follow France's lead. "We can't impose anything, but I'm asking them to follow. I came here symbolically to show my EU colleagues how burden-sharing should work effectively," he told reporters. The initial 99 refugees will leave Malta on July 9. They are being taken as part of a pilot project agreed to by EU leaders earlier in June. Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta wanted the burden-sharing pact to be mandatory, but other EU states were in disagreement. Besson said France wanted to continue exerting pressure on human traffickers who were becoming increasingly professional. Malta has been calling on other EU states to take in some of the island's refugees - but the response has been lukewarm at best. Over 9,000 would-be illegal immigrants have reached the densely- populated island of 400,000 inhabitants in the last six years, though, surprisingly, arrivals have dwindled in recent months.
