The EU’s ministers for immigration have agreed that the European Asylum Support Office, set to be put in place in early 2010, will be based in Malta, where waves of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, mostly from the Horn of Africa, reach Europe’s shores after transiting in Libya. Malta was chosen over two other candidates, Cyprus and Bulgaria, at the Justice and Home Affairs Council, on 30 November in Brussels.

The European Commission proposed the creation of such an office in 2008 to boost cooperation between member states in managing asylum requests. The office will not have decision making authority but will help EU states like Malta, which are overwhelmed by «specific and disproportionate» migratory pressure.

An agreement with the European Parliament, particularly on appointment of the executive director, paved the way for the Council’s political agreement. The proposal is expected to be adopted formally by the end of the year. The European Refugee Fund will be modified in the process, «because the support office will have responsibility for certain operations that have been financed by the fund until now,» noted the Council.

French Minister Eric Besson also confirmed that Paris would repeat the operation carried out last summer of taking over refugees from Malta. After taking in 92 refugees in 2009, France will take in another 80 or so who have landed on Malta’s coasts. Officially, seven EU member states (the United Kingdom, Portugal, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Romania, Poland and Slovakia) are willing to take part in the pilot project proposed by the Commission, aimed at relieving Malta of some of its refugees. Some 40 to 50 refugees are said to be concerned.