| 15 January 2009 The Cuprus, Greece, Italy and Malta paper (in the official public version now appearing on the Italian Ministry of Interior website) emerged from a meeting of the Interior Ministers of these four countries, held on 13 January. The meeting followed extensive political and media attention in Italy over recent weeks to the phenomenon of sea arrivals, particularly on the island of Lampedusa, where thousands of people are now in overcrowded conditions in the reception centre. Italian Minister Maroni convened the four-way meeting after a recent visit to Lampedusa, and the initiative was welcomed by the other states - all of whom saw an increase in people arriving irregularly by sea in 2008. The paper speaks to the issue of sea arrivals and the need for 'solidarity and burden-sharing' among EU MS. It argues that the 'rise of illegal migrants passing through transit countries ...penalises' those countries along the EU's southern border. It then addresses a wide range of issues currently arising in EU policy debates on migration and asylum including: - Readmission and return (calling inter alia for creation of an EU 'laissez-passer' to overcome lack of documentation as an obstacle to return; more EU readmission agreements and otherwise, bilateral agreements with third countries of origin/transit); - measures to 'control illegal migration', with positive references to the need to protect victims of trafficking among other things; - calls for more support to Frontex, and potentially 'specialised offices' to enable Frontex to assess risks; - rescue at sea - with a call for other MS to take on responsibility for people rescued during sea operations; - support for a European asylum support office; - amendment of Dublin II (calling for amendments to allow reallocation of asylum seekers among MS - which is not part of the current proposals and would not be accepted by others); - relocation of people granted protection (noting that ERF funds are available to support); - long term residence - with an unclear paragraph appearing to support the LTR directive's extension to refugees - the formulation presumably complicated by the position of Malta, which blocked efforts to extend it recently. - strengthened cooperation with UNHCR to ensure better protection for people outside the territory of the EU who request protection. Cyprusl_paper.pdf
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