Apart from these laws, which provide for housing-specific issues, those who enter into Maltese leases must also comply with the provisions of the Contracts Act. Interior ministers from Germany, France, Italy and Malta have agreed on a mechanism to redistribute migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Monday. But the agreement reached in Malta contains a few words such as „quotas“ and „compulsory“ – which have created problems in the past. It could also prove controversial, as it repeatedly refers to asylum seekers and migrants and not to refugees who could open the system to people who receive less international protection for reasons such as persecution or war. In addition to a mix of recurrent and rhetorical general objectives – prevention of human life at sea, combating migrant trafficking, reducing irregular migration, improving rapid return – the preamble cites the concrete justification of the „agreement“ in addressing „uncertainties regarding the rapid landing, reception and relocation of the edges“. The document of the new agreement will be presented to the other 24 EU Member States on 8 October in Luxembourg. To date, ten countries are supposed to support the mechanism, including Portugal, Ireland, Luxembourg, Greece and Spain. Will other EU Member States join? Countries that refuse to participate could be threatened with economic sanctions. The statement contains a confusing mix of political explanations and programmatic statements, some of which address very general issues, others define more specific provisions. Contrary to Salvini`s conflicting political approach, the alternation within the Italian government in August 2019 has created a window of opportunity for dialogue (see here), but the revamped spirit of „European“ cooperation seems to be inspired by old logics and „obsessions“ (fight against irregular migration, rapid and effective return, leverage and cooperation with third countries, pull factor). For reasons of clarity, the reflections are grouped around three main points: landing, relocation, search and rescue (SaR).
Although SaR takes place logically at first, we will follow the order in which the topics are presented in the statement. The Maltese housing authority is the most important institution to deal with all rent issues. In 2018, the Authority has even enacted a new law that includes several amendments to the Housing Act, which provides for leases. Even for those covered by the agreement, the situation is far from certain. Isolated from the population, they are transferred to Italian and Maltese reception centres, where they are first subjected to a security check. Refugees will be investigated for links to terrorism by EU police teams, most of whom are from Germany. They should then be distributed to EU countries within four weeks, and only then will the asylum procedure itself begin. The main commitment of the agreement (paragraph 1) is to „establish a more predictable and effective temporary solidarity mechanism to ensure the dignified landing of migrants embarked on the high seas by ships in a safe place“.
Therefore, the agreement does not apply to migrants who manage to reach European shores on their own, who are by far the vast majority of migrants. For example, according to the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), in the first six months of 2019, only 8% of migrants arriving in Italy were rescued by rescue boats. The redistribution process is not just for people who already have refugee status.
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