He pointed to "a coalition of the willing", made up of EU member states including Germany and Austria, who have pledged to resettle Syrians once irregular arrivals had stopped.
"When we succeed in breaking the pattern of irregular arrivals one-for-one will not become none-for-none," Timmermans said.
The UNHCR reckons that last year the number of "irregular arrivals" by sea numbered about 19,900 in Italy, 18,000 in Spain (including the Canary Islands) and 1,800 in Malta.
Earlier in the decade, the most popular route was from West Africa to Spain, including its North African territories of Ceuta and Melilla, and the Canary Islands, with some 32,000 irregular arrivals in 2006.
In Italy, a frontline country which has received more than a third of irregular arrivals by sea this year, the new nationalist government closed its ports to NGO ships carrying rescued migrants and demanded European neighbors do more to share the burden.
Gillard asked the inspector general of intelligence and security (IGIS) in June to examine the actions of commonwealth agencies "in respect of an Egyptian irregular maritime arrival who arrived in Australia in May 2012, was placed in immigration detention and was the subject of an Interpol red notice".
The last one, issued just before the old department was disappeared by the new government, confirmed the "transfer" of the 19th group of "irregular maritime arrivals" to Nauru.
The centre, described recently as a "tent city" by the United Nations high commission on refugees, is an integral part of the government's "no advantage" policy, aimed at deterring irregular maritime arrivals.
This is because the site is being prepared for those who arrived in Australia following the government's new deal with PNG that will see all irregular maritime arrivals sent offshore.
For most of the past decade, Australia has had one of the toughest asylum programs in the developed world, placing "irregular maritime arrivals" in isolated detention centers, surrounded by electrified razor-wire fences while their claims are assessed.
