Mediterranean countries push for more solidarity in migrant crisis

Byron Camilleri, minister for home affairs and security of Malta greets Notis Mitarachi, Greece’s minister of migration (Rene Rossignaud/AP)

Less than a week after a deadly migrant shipwreck off Italy, five EU countries that border the Mediterranean criticised their northern neighbours for not accepting asylum-seekers under a voluntary scheme.

The ministers responsible for migration policy in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain met in Malta’s capital, Valletta, on Saturday ahead of an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels next week on migration.