Updated: CNI wants Malta debt guarantee withdrawn after EU ditches migrant solidarity

Malta should withdraw the financial solidarity it showed debt-stricken EU members (such as Greece) after Brussels ditched a proposal to help in the relocation of migrants, according to a former prime minister. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who now heads the Campaign for National Independence, an anti-EU political pressure group, this morning criticised the European Commission for going back on its pledge to propose a permanent voluntary scheme. Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta became an attractive destination for migrants after it joined the EU because it was obliged to process their applications here, preventing them from moving on to other member states. He also warned that the EU's aim was to integrate migrants. "The EU is forcing Malta to keep illegal immigrants here even though they have always wanted to go to other European countries," he said. Dr Mifsud Bonnici urged the Government not to cooperate with Brussels by refusing to send the finger prints of migrants to a central EU data base and giving migrants who want to go to other members states the freedom to do so. "The Government has to do this to safeguard the national interest," he said, warning that a large concentration of...