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European Affairs

Indeed. If Turkey joined the EU, its borders with those friendly states would be our borders, too. It is impossible for Turkey to police those borders robustly, with controls of the standard we require from Poland and will require from Romania and Bulgaria—our new neighbours. That situation is unfortunate, but we must be realistic about the fact that Turkey is a large country and has borders with the states to which I referred. I find it incredible that we should advance the candidacy of a country that actually occupies part of EU territory. That is a matter of legal fact, as northern Cyprus is the territory of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, but also territory of the EU, so I find it inconceivable that we should be negotiating membership of a country whose occupation of another country still endures. Finally, I want to pick up on a point about Malta, which was raised by the hon. Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) a little while ago. Malta is currently enduring great problems as a result of mass migration from north Africa, with immigrants coming in particularly from sub-Saharan Africa. It is unfair that Malta has to cope with this growing and disproportionate influx of illegal immigration, and it is demonstrably a European problem that the Council of Ministers needs to deal with urgently. I hope that the Minister will announce a revisiting of the Dublin convention, as there needs to be a comprehensive discussion among European member states of how to share the burden of the illegal immigration that is unfairly hitting Malta. The need for dispersal should be recognised and there should be a common policy for dealing with the problem.