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Following the arrival in Malta of 291 migrants (243 men and 48 women) on a boat from Libya, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced on July 4 that he would demand further solidarity from the EU when European Council President Herman Van Rompuy visits the country next week.
Muscat has pointed out that the management of an influx of migrants on this scale is beyond Malta's capacity, explains The Malta Independent, which reports that the prime minister —
… abstained from voting on the asylum package at last week’s European Council, which his party had criticised because it included no compulsory burden-sharing mechanism for asylum seekers.
The prime minister also said, “he was not excluding push backs of immigrants intercepted at sea, ‘especially’ if Libya is declared to be a safe country.”
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