photo - EPA/PAP

Poland is ready to receive up to a dozen of the over 800 Libyan refugees who have arrived to Malta following the insurgency against the Gaddafi regime in Tripoli.

Talking to journalists after a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg, Poland’s Interior Minister Jerzy Miller said, however, that, like other EU countries, Poland is not willing to receive Tunisians from the Italian island of Lampedusa.

He stressed that the people who fled war-torn Libya are genuine refugees whose life is at threat in their homeland.

“Consequently, they have the right to expect humanitarian assistance and shelter from the European nations,” Mr Miller said, adding that European solidarity has to be of a very concrete shape.

Germany has declared its readiness to receive about 100 refugees. Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Hungary as well as Norway, which is not a member of the EU, have also expressed their willingness of accept Libyan refugees.

But EU diplomats say that not all of those currently in Malta have a place to go.

According to the European Union, the immigrants from Tunisia, over 20,000 of whom have reached Lampedusa, should return home.

The Polish Interior Minister described them as “economic immigrants” who are merely seek better job opportunities. Diplomats also claim that 800 immigrants are a far greater burden for Malta with its 400, 000 inhabitants than over 20 thousand arrivals are for Italy, a country of 60 million people. (mk/pg)