Malta will stop participating in the European Union's border agency Frontex's Mediterranean operations, unless proposals on where intercepted illegal immigrants should be held are changed, dpa cited Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici as saying today. The European Council's draft guidelines propose that migrants picked up at sea must be sent to the country hosting the Frontex mission, rather than the nearest port of call, as currently stipulated by international maritime laws. The guidelines would allow one exception: in the event of people being ill or pregnant on board the rescued vessel, or if the boat is deemed to be unseaworthy, the migrants may be taken to the nearest port of call. "We're not going to accept a situation where those rescued just off Lampedusa (Italy), for example, are going to be brought to Malta," Mifsud Bonnici told the German Press Agency dpa. The tiny Mediterranean island-state of Malta has provided a base for Frontex sea patrols since 2008. Around 820 migrants were picked up during the Frontex operations south of Malta in 2009, with just over 700 of them being taken to the island. Malta saw a drastic reduction in would-be illegal immigrants in 2009, but this is believed to be the result of the controversial push-back policy negotiated between Italy and Libya, which led to protests from humanitarian organisations.
