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Malta judicious about issuing humanitarian visas to avoid extremists: PM

Xinhua, September 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Monday that Malta needed to be prudent about issuing humanitarian visas so as to ensure that people seeking asylum here were not part of an extremist group.

He said Malta needed to safeguard its national interest as it received migrants from war-torn Syria and Libya.

Muscat was questioned after several European countries said they would issue humanitarian visas to Syrian migrants. Humanitarian visas enable migrants to apply for entry to the European Union on humanitarian grounds and thereby guarantee that member states meet their international obligations.

He said Malta had always shown responsibility and solidarity with migrants, well before the heartbreaking picture of the drowned boy on a Turkish beach was published last week. "We have had this problem on our doorstep for years, hopefully the current reaction will not wane once the media shifts its focus," Muscat said.

According to a report released by the archipelago's national statistics office this June, a total of 569 irregular immigrants were brought to Maltese shores in 2014, a decrease of 71.7 per cent compared to the preceding year.

Meanwhile, a total of 266 migrants on Maltese Islands have been repatriated to their home countries over the past 5 years, under a restart program conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in Malta. Endit