Interview: Valletta Summit on Migration helps increase political will: expert

Professor Stephen Calleya, Director of Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies at University of Malta, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Thursday that the Valletta Summit on Migration has helped increase political wills of all parties that attend the summit.

Speaking at his office at University of Malta Msida campus, Dr. Calleya specified that the political will has started to move to the correct direction.

"Malta for more than 10 years has always been assisting migration needs to be taken more seriously. We did not find support in the past, there will be those who say this is your problem, not my problem, today you see it from the turn-up of the summit, everyone is realizing this is not Malta's problem, this is not the Mediterranean's, this is everyone's, because the mobility, the traffickers, the smuggling, the organizing of crime do not stop anywhere," he said.

The professor pointed out that the EU has failed to guard borders of all member states, as a result, Countries such as Malta, Italy, Greece, Spain, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, are having to manage their borders on their own.

"This is ridiculous, you can not be part of the regional bloc, also has an agency called Frontex, which is created 10 years ago to precisely help all of these countries join the EU," said Dr. Calleya.

Referring to the newly-established emergency trust fund of 1.8 billion euros (1.93 billion U.S. dollars) set up by the European Union, the director told Xinhua that it could be regarded as a positive sign but not an amount that would make the difference unless the pledge to be used for what it is supposed to be.

"So first 1.8 billion, it's something positive, is it enough? Obviously not, but it is a positive development that one should be very happy about. Also, if the 1.8 billion is managed, is monitored, is audited, so that every euro goes to help people, I have no doubt that you will also have more funds coming from other sectors, including the member states," he added.

The director also suggested that EU has to introduce measures and dimensions in the summit that focus on the legal migration.

"You can only deal with the illegal and the criminal, the trafficking of people, if you have legal channels where people can apply and people can try and come," he said.

"The time has come if we want to attack the illegal. Otherwise the people will continue to come no matter what you do," he said. Enditem