Editorial

Illegal immigrants are posing serious problems to a good number of countries today, including Malta. These countries have to balance the economic and social well-being of their own people against their responsibility, as members of the international civilised community, to accommodate such desperate migrants, even if temporarily, if anything as an outward sign of solidarity and compassion.

And yet, the situation is far more delicate than that. For the mere act of hosting these illegal immigrants tends to be translated into more of them heading your way.

No wonder the home affairs ministry has expressed concern at the sharp rise in the number of illegal immigrants coming to Malta. At the same time the ministry said it believed the situation was not alarming. Indeed, it may not be at the present moment but it may well end up being so if the flow grows.

Malta is far too small to take a very large number of illegal immigrants as these would pose added problems to the government. Actually, most of the illegal immigrants rounded up in Malta find their way here accidentally as their destination point is usually Italy, from where they can find their way to so many other places on the continent.

The influx of illegal immigrants into Malta seems to have gathered momentum over the past weeks and months. A few years back the island was taken by surprise when a ship full of Albanian immigrants limped into our ports with its cargo of hopefuls begging for a brighter future for them and their families. They were eventually flown back to what we would describe as "home" but which, evidently, was nothing of the sort to them.

For some time no more illegal immigrants showed up but then the flow started again and this has now, by our standards at least, become a steady one.

The authorities responded the best way they could. They improved surveillance in our seas, boosted cooperation with neighbouring states, signed legal instruments that provide for the repatriation of illegal immigrants and also enacted legislation that has contributed to speedier processing of application by immigrants for refugee status.

But that does not mean the end of the problem for the fact remains that when a crippled boat overloaded with unhealthy, thirsty and hungry human beings approaches your shores you cannot just turn them away.

The government was right in setting up a committee to deal with the sharp rise in the number of illegal immigrants. That should serve to keep the issue under constant review.

However, the authorities must continue to work with other countries, especially those where the bulk of the illegal immigrants come from, in order to find ways and means whereby repatriation can take place as soon as possible, so long as the safety of such immigrants is guaranteed.

This is, of course, easier said than done and that is why a concerted effort by all the countries afflicted by the problem should be made. There are enough international fora where these countries can perhaps set in motion a common initiative that would seek to tackle the matter from all its angles. It is after all a human problem of the first magnitude.