Before Malta joined the EU in 2004, immigration levels were negligible. Because it is located close to north Africa, it has now become a gateway for migrants seeking entry to Europe. In relation to its population, it receives the highest number of asylum applications in the world. This is partly because it's so small – smaller than the Isle of Wight. The 17,000 undocumented migrants who have arrived in the last decade are equivalent to 2.7 million landing in Britain.
It is renewing its call for the EU to implement a policy of mandatory burden sharing, whereby countries elsewhere in Europe would be obliged to absorb some of the migrants arriving in "frontier" countries like Malta. This solution has been supported in the past by Italy, Cyprus and Greece, also struggling with an influx of asylum applications, particularly after the Arab spring, but it has generally been met with resistance in Brussels.
