EU demands commitment from Malta over migrants

ROME, June 3 (Reuters) A top European Union official accused Malta today of failing to meet its international responsibilities to save lives at sea after leaving African migrants clinging to tuna nets in the sea for days.

EU Commissioner Franco Frattini, in charge of migration issues, said he wanted a formal undertaking from the Mediterranean island at a meeting of EU interior ministers on June 11 that it would not allow such an incident to take place again.

''The obligation to save lives at sea comes from international tradition that no country has ever violated in such a manifest way,'' Frattini told Italy's La Repubblica daily.

Last week, 27 shipwrecked Africans spent three days clinging to tuna nets in the Mediterranean while Malta and Libya argued over who should rescue them. They were eventually picked up by the Italian navy.

A French navy ship found 18 bodies floating south of Malta on Friday just days after Maltese authorities said they had lost contact with a boat photographed carrying 53 African migrants.

The frigate, La Motte-Piquet, was due later today to dock in the French port of Toulon and be met by French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux.

Malta refused to allow a Spanish tugboat to land another 26 would-be migrants on the grounds they were picked up in seas that fall under Libya's responsibility. Spain decided to take them in.

Malta argues it is not obliged under international law to take in migrants if they are in Libya's search and rescue area, but Frattini accused the country, one of the EU's newest and smallest members, of ignoring its responsibilities.

''You can't hide behind a type of legal-bureaucratic argument while letting people die,'' Frattini said.

Frattini said the EU was providing help, including a marine patrol force around Malta, Sicily and Libya to be launched later this month, and Malta had to do its bit in return.

The Council of Europe, a pan-European body which works to promote human rights, also criticised the Valletta government.

''My office ... would hereby urge the Maltese authorities to soften their stance on providing assistance to irregular migrants whose lives are in danger,'' the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner Thomas Hammarberg said.

A Maltese patrol boat recovered 29 migrants yesterday from a boat drifting (135 km) off the island's coast.

REUTERS ABM PM2102