Sparks fly as Frattini and Mifsud Bonnici face off on air
Yesterday’s interception generated more friction between Rome and Valletta, as the Italian authorities once again accused Malta of passing the immigration buck to Italy.
As the Italian media continued to lambast Malta over its rules of engagement with migrants encountered at sea, and its policy of granting “right of passage” to the migrants who refuse to be rescued by the AFM, the issue was once again the subject of a controversial debate on RAI’s RadioUno yesterday morning between Home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Italian Foreign minister Franco Frattini.
The Italian minister took the opportunity to reiterate Italy’s belief that Malta’s vast search and rescue area (SAR) is too big for the island-state, and proposes that Italy takes it over.
Frattini insisted that Malta’s SAR area should be reduced, since its area was disproportionate to the country’s size. “To give you a rough picture... Malta’s SAR is as large as Italy when Malta is the size of Rome,” Frattini said during a RAI’s Radio Anch’Io programme.
However this statement was immediately countered by Mifsud Bonnici, who made it clear that Malta wouldn’t be giving up any of its SAR saying this was part of the country’s sovereignty.
“Italy doesn’t need our SAR, it has a large-enough area to watch over, unless there are ulterior motives,” he said.
Mifsud Bonnici explained that no inquiry about the five Eritrean migrants was being conducted in Malta, and hinted that from the intelligence gathered about the alleged tragedy, “it must have happened in Libyan SAR waters.”
Towards the end of the programme, both Ministers agreed that the EU must do its bit to help alleviate the burden faced by the two states, and expressed hope that fellow EU member states would recognise the urgent need for a policy that dictates the redistribution of illegal immigrants among all member states as the solution to the problem.
Meanwhile, government’s position about Malta’s SAR area received formal support from the Opposition, with PL leader Joseph Muscat insisted that Malta should not give in to pressure being exerted by Italy.
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