Keeping tabs on migrants

Now that it's all over the news and as a country we are oh so embarrassed... as so we should... shock, shock horror we are finally acknowledging the liberal issuing of student visas.

Not only are immigrants intending to slip out of our country applying for and receiving student visas to dupe our hapless immigration services but so are the countless "live-in" helpers most being of Asian origin.

I ask: Is it possible, only now that this tragedy has befallen our fair land, that the minister concerned and all his aides have learnt about this sorry situation? If so, as it seems is the case, we deserve all the bad publicity we are getting.

It is too often that our authorities get moving on such grave issues only once some tragedy has occurred!

The only pity is that we as Maltese have been dragged under this cloak of inefficiency. We deserve much better from our elected officials.

Efficiency in this case would not have, say, saved someone from excessive red tape or unnecessary bureaucracy but had the authorities been up to speed on the situation lives would have been saved!