France agrees that EU countries should have a quota system for the distribution of migrants and, according to French European affairs minister Harlem Désir, it would be wrong for any member state to believe migration is a national issue and not a wider one, reprts The Times of Malta.
Mr Désir, currently in Malta, said migrants entering the EU were not coming to one particular country but wanted to come to Europe, making it imperative for a common migration policy to be in place.
He was reacting to resistance by the UK and Hungary, which have publicly expressed opposition to a proposal by the European Commission for an obligatory quota system across all EU member states. The proposal will be discussed on Wednesday.
Mr Désir made his comments on board an Armed Forces patrol boat during a visit to the maritime squadron with home affairs minister Carmelo Abela.
Asked about the quota system, he said France agreed with the proposal and was ready to discuss the details.
He said genuine asylum seekers should be redistributed between all member states and others who did not deserve protection be repatriated.
He expressed solidarity with Malta and said French navy vessels will be heading to the central Mediterranean as part of the Frontex mission to save lives at sea.
"We have to deal with the challenge of migration through a common migration policy while at the same time attacking the criminal networks that send people out to their death," Mr Désir said.
However, France also wanted action to help countries like Tunisia and Niger which were transit countries for migrants.
He said the deep-rooted problems of war, failed states and dictatorships in Africa had to be tackled since these were causing people to flee.
He was speaking as the EU seeks a UN-mandate at the Security Council for the use of force inside Libya to target the criminal networks.