EU executive defends immigrant centres

The European Union's designated justice commissioner has hit back at criticism over his proposals to set up centres for prospective immigrants outside the EU's borders.

Rocco Buttiglione insisted his aim was to help prepare people rather than prevent them from entering the 25-nation bloc with what opponents view as "concentration camps".

However, he also said such offshore centres would make it easier to establish early whether would-be immigrants should qualify for EU entry. He said: "Such centres will help open the channels of legal migration and stop the slave trade that is illegal immigration... These centres also have the function of discouraging those who should not come, do not have the qualifications, are criminals. Every man has a duty to work to help better the country where he was born. He does not have a right to immigration."

Buttiglione, Italy's minister for European affairs in the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, has been one of the most outspoken members of the incoming European Commission assembled by Jose Manuel Barroso. The 24 designated commissioners, due to take office in November, will first face hearings before members of the European Parliament, and Buttiglione's statements on one of the most sensitive areas of EU policy are expected to draw tough questions. However, Buttiglione said that he was determined to put the fight against illegal immigration at the top of the EU's agenda and was ready for criticism during the hearings.

He also indicated that he would seek to revive the idea of introducing EU immigration quotas, which he described as "an important instrument", even though a quota proposal presented by the Italian government was shelved by other EU nations last September. While not the only EU country to have experimented with quotas, Italy insists that its recent track record with Albania and others shows how a preferential quota system can motivate countries to clamp down on clandestine immigration.

A UK-led proposal to create offshore centres was blocked in June 2003 following a heated discussion at a summit of heads of government. However, one of the initial opponents to the idea of offshore centres, Otto Schily, the German interior minister, has recently changed his stance and talked about creating immigration "gateways" outside the EU.

Buttiglione maintains there are successful precedents, notably centres set up in the 1960s in Turkey for people looking to move to Germany. He added that non-governmental organisations could play a part in organising such centres, but that responsibility would rest in the hands of the local government.

© Financial Times