"The Commission wants to know what really happened before passing its judgment and has already sent a request for information to Malta and Italy on this case," a spokesman said yesterday.

The latest incident involved a group of 80 immigrants from Eritrea and Somalia who last Sunday attempted to reach Lampedusa on a dinghy that departed from Libya.

It was reported that, while on the high seas, a patrol boat of the Armed Forces of Malta intervened to bring ashore three migrants and a baby who needed medical assistance while the rest continued on their journey to Lampedusa. However, the dinghy was later stopped by the Italian coastguard vessel Denaro outside Italian territorial waters. The immigrants were transferred to the Italian vessel and returned to the port of Zawia in Libya.

The Commission yesterday reiterated its opposition to the return policy adopted by Italy and said every human being had a right to ask for asylum status.

The Commissioner for Justice, Jacques Barrot had already declared that, according to the interpretation of the Court of Human Rights on the principle of non-refoulement, states must not send back anyone who risked being mistreated or tortured on their return, the spokesman said.

The Italian policy attracted widespread criticism, even from the Vatican.

Following the Commission's comments, Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni insisted that illegal immigrants found in international waters would be returned to Libya.

Meanwhile, in response to the pressure mounted over the past months by Malta and Italy on the issue of illegal immigration, the Commission is today expected to unveil one of a set of new proposals on the burden-sharing of refugees among member states.

According to this proposal, member states would annually pledge how many people it would be ready to admit from third countries rather than making case-by-case decisions as with the recent acceptance of Iraqi refugees from Syria and Jordan.

The member states would receive EU funds to help with resettlement.

This proposal would only apply to asylum seekers who were not in EU member states, such as Somalis in Libya or Egypt.

According to a Commission official, "the proposal to alleviate Malta's burden is expected to be launched later on in the month".

According to a tailor-made pilot project, promised to Malta earlier this year, the Commission was planning to launch a first intra-EU resettlement programme to deal with a number of refugees and other persons enjoying humanitarian status and living in Malta.

Home Affairs Minister Car-melo Mifsud Bonnici said last week Malta was expecting to resettle the majority of the 2,000 refugees and humanitarian sta-tus persons on the island as a result of this programme.

By Ivan Camilleri, Times of Malta