Illegal immigrants are Europe's problem

A few days ago many were so pleased to watch a local TV programme in which Assistant Commissioner Andrew Seychell and Fr Pierre Grech Marguerat, SJ, participated. Luckily enough, the interviewer gave both of them plenty of time to answer his questions and interrupted them only when necessary.

Indeed, it is such a pleasure watching an interesting programme when those participating know the entity of the problem under discussion so well and are really qualified to make an objective assessment of a new problem. Any programme becomes interesting when those who participate have something to say and not just to say something.

Admittedly, the problem of illegal immigrants is completely new for Malta. However, a year or so ago one could say we were taken totally by surprise but with the passage of time a problem can't be referred to as new.

The element of surprise is no longer there, as one gradually learns from daily experience and one gets much better organised in tackling a new problem.

Again, one was pleased that both Assistant Commissioner Seychell and Fr Grech Marguerat made it amply clear that the presence of illegal immigrants had serious implications of a legal and financial nature but, above all, it was a new problem that involved humans with a problem.

No doubt, Malta cannot solve this problem alone. It is a problem that directly and indirectly involves other European countries and should be tackled in this perspective. In the meantime the Government of Malta, Parliament and Church organisations - such as the Emigrants' Commission and the Jesuits, in particular - have to evaluate this problem regularly and do all that is possible to expedite any necessary, ongoing process, such as who of these immigrants can qualify as a refugee.

Welcoming the stranger is not only a charitable act but is also a collective duty, which no one can shirk. Doing nothing is never an option. This is also yet another challenge, which these illegal immigrants present to this new Europe... a new Europe with a new problem.

As Fr Timothy Radcliffe, Master General of the Dominican Order, writes in his book I Call You Friends:

"The most typically modern society, the USA, consists almost of immigrants, people who have recently moved. Our own Europe is one in which a most fundamental challenge is that of welcoming the stranger, the strangers who come from Morocco to Spain, from the former Soviet Union to Germany, from Algeria to France, from Albania to Italy.

"Everywhere people are on the move, forced from their homelands by poverty or political persecution. And almost everywhere we can find a new intolerance of the stranger." (The book was written in 1999.)

It is very appropriate to reflect in depth on what Montesquieu said: "If I knew something that could be useful to myself, but detrimental to my family, I would cast it from my mind. If I knew something that was useful to my family but detrimental to my country I would consider it criminal. If I knew something useful to Europe, but detrimental to humanity, I would also consider it a crime" (quoted by Julia Kristeva in Visions of Europe: Conversations on the Legacy and Future of Europe, 1992).