The third great siege?

Have we joined Europe only to be invaded by Africa? Malta's accession to the European Union has made the island more attractive to illegal immigrants coming from North Africa. What started as a problem has now ballooned into a national crisis.

Unless tackled with urgency and determination, it threatens to undermine Malta's security, economy and the very identity of its people. Many of us are responsible for the present situation. We must all contribute to its solution. It is a new game and we must play it by new rules.

For the past decade or so, many aliens from Middle Eastern and North African countries have targeted our tiny country either as a stepping stone to Europe or as a comfortable place to settle in. This started from small beginnings, with Syrians, Egyptians, Tunisians, Moroccans, Palestinians and of course Libyans, landing as bona fide tourists and then overstaying and settling here, illegally in most cases, or after marriages of convenience in many other cases.

Imported criminality from these sources gradually started hitting the daily headlines. This organised phenomenon received a boost when one of our diplomatic representatives misguidedly granted visas en masse to hundreds of Iraqis after the first Gulf War, thus enabling them to come to Malta, where some of them found it convenient to settle.

More recently, however, this phenomenon assumed even more menacing proportions with the ever-increasing numbers of boat people landing on our shores or being 'rescued' on the high seas by our armed forces, very often scores of miles away from our territorial waters. Initially the problem was under some control, as any person entering the country illegally or overstaying was charged before the courts and promptly handed a deportation order, which, more often than not, was promptly enforced by the Principal Immigration Officer.

Matters took a turn for the worse when some well-meaning but idealistic organisations started lobbying Government to implement the provisions of the United Nations Convention for the Protection of Refugees, with all its many and far-reaching obligations.

They were spearheaded by the Jesuit Refugee Service, whose militancy, however, has always stopped short of offering Jesuit-owned premises in Malta and Gozo, vast and under-utilised though they were, to extend charity to illegal immigrants. The powers that be - also well motivated - eventually complied. Little did they seem to understand the medium- and long-term implications of adherence to this convention and this either through sheer lack of foresight or because they were ill advised by their legal experts

Auto goals

As a result, a number of successive auto goals were scored by the administration, which paved the way for the present difficult situation. As soon as Malta adhered to the convention, it bound itself to provide assistance to alien persons entering the country and applying for refugee status and to provide them and their dependants with free board and lodging, social assistance, free medical assistance and free education for their children until the vetting process was completed.

Even after an application for refugee status was turned down, the same obligations still applied until the appeal proceedings were finally concluded. The do-gooders quickly saw to it that all aliens - even those coming from countries whose citizens could never hope to qualify for refugee status - were encouraged to apply, just in case!

In the meantime this forestalled any possibility of repatriation and ensured that the process went on for months and months at great expense to the Maltese Exchequer.

The absolute majority of these aliens made sure that they did not have any documentation to prove their identity and their country of origin. Indeed, many of them gave spurious details about their identity to improve their chances of being accepted as refugees.

Naturally not all hoodwinked the Refugees Commission, but Government was then prevailed on to give hundreds of them so-called "humanitarian status", even though they did not qualify as refugees. Either as a further withdrawal in front of the heavy lobbying by some NGOs, or because its detention centres were at times bursting at the seams, Government released hundreds of these aliens onto the streets, providing them with accommodation in open centres and catering for all their needs.

This was not enough to assuage the do-gooders. They were now joined by a handful of people in the media who launched a vigorous campaign labelling Government's efforts at repatriating some of these aliens almost as verging on the criminal and clamouring for the end of Government's detention policy.

One particular minister came in for a spate of very unfair criticism for having done what was in the national interest. Calls for his resignation were repeated ad nauseam by one or two well-placed journalists with an agenda. More recently a representative of the Emigrants' Commission even started lobbying to have the relatives of illegal immigrants still in their countries of origin join them in Malta - folly at its height!

These pressures from a handful of idealists are regrettably gradually having the desired effect. Government time after time has given in and its most recent capitulation is its declaration that in all cases detention would not go beyond 18 months. This destroyed the last bastion of defence against the ever-growing wave of illegal entry, as those landing here were now assured that if they could grin and bear it in detention centres for 18 months, they would be free ever after and able to enjoy Maltese hospitality indefinitely. Besides being a big U-turn in the administration's policy, this move gave the worst possible message to the aliens waiting in North Africa to invade this tiny country.

Another naive move was the signing of the agreement with Italy to take back immigrants reaching Italy's shores from our islands when we did not have corresponding agreements with Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. Even if this was done under the veiled or explicit threat of withholding funds for road construction under the Fifth Financial Protocol from Italy, Government should not have accepted such an imposition by our supposedly friendly neighbour and EU partner.

This was not all. Faced with hundreds of aliens loitering in our streets, Government decided to allow them to work in Malta. It is ironic that after so much argy-bargy took place in our negotiations with the EU about allowing Europeans to work here and after so much trumpeting of Malta's victory in obtaining a seven-year period of grace to control the inflow of workers from our 24 partner states, we granted the right to work in Malta to non-EU aliens, who had no right to be here in the first place.

GWU and Opposition sitting on the fence

It seems that the General Workers' Union, usually so vociferous over the most ludicrous of petty issues and so hostile to the threat of European workers flooding the local market, did not even notice this pathetic contradiction. The GWU should have risen to its responsibility, if only out of respect for the 200,000 Maltese who in the last half-century had to leave our shores to find jobs in other countries.

It should have realised that this mass inflow of unskilled, destitute and (to top it all) illegal labour can only depress the wages and living conditions of Maltese workers.

And where was the elected Opposition in all this? It sat on the sidelines gleefully watching Government writhing in its U-turns and capitulations. While in a very subdued tone supporting Government's ever-diluted detention policy, it often taunted the Government about the conditions of detention of illegal immigrants.

The Opposition's opportunistic and cynical attitude only allowed it to call for a national conference on the problem, but it never spelled out its policy on this issue loud and clear. The Opposition has also much to answer for.

In the meantime, the Government, Opposition and union's media looked the other way and never admitted the magnitude of the looming situation and continued with their boring drudgery of blowing up trivial local issues as if they were the be all and end all of our existence as a nation.

Fortunately, however, this did not hoodwink the public, as recent surveys and on-line polls have shown. The average Maltese citizen and taxpayer is now fast becoming acutely aware of the problem and wants something done about it fast.

For the first time in this chronically divided country, there is now an almost unanimous consensus on the gravity of this threat to our territorial integrity and to our identity as a nation and a people.

The final coup de grace seems not long in coming as some big-wig has also recently mooted the idea of granting these aliens Maltese nationality in the hope they could then travel abroad to better and far richer pastures of their choice with Maltese passports. Refugees, indeed!

What can be done? Malta has belatedly embarked on a diplomatic campaign with our European "brothers" and with Libya, but very little is likely to come out of it, except perhaps to give Malta an alibi for some badly needed unilateral action. What can one expect from Europe when EU Commissioner for Justice Franco Frattini, up to a few months ago (as an Italian minister), was officially and publicly advocating that Malta and Cyprus be turned into detention centres for illegal immigrants wanting to enter Europe?

Much less is expected of Libya, where Col. Muammar Gaddafi some months back declared that he would not move a finger to stem the flow of boat people from Libyan shores until all the countries on the African continent attained parity of standards of living with those obtaining in Europe.

This, followed by the Libyan Ambassador's recent admission that Libya cannot control its own borders, puts paid to any hope of co-operation from that quarter either. Not that anyone who is familiar with travel to and from Libya can take the Ambassador's declaration seriously. Try going to Libya without a visa, or to get out of the place if they don't want you to. Ask those Maltese who have been held there for years to honour contractual obligations.

With partners and neighbours like these, who needs enemies? Malta should act on its own and take some steps immediately.

Action today

First, it should start by suspending its adherence to, or withdrawing, from all international treaties that are being abused by illegal immigrants contriving to enter our country under false pretences. Minuscule Malta cannot be expected to assume the far-reaching obligations that countries like the United States, Canada and Australia, with their vast hinterland and resources, are expected to bear. Even these countries do not suffer illegal immigrants lightly and rigid controls at entry points are the order of the day.

Secondly, Malta should declare that it will not extend its search and rescue service beyond its territorial waters and in any case limit such service to genuine cases arising from some act of God, natural calamity, or air or shipping disaster.

People who deliberately and regularly place themselves at risk in international waters in sea craft which are evidently unseaworthy should not expect any country to take the trouble and expense of 'rescuing' them from their self-inflicted plight. The legal maxim volenti non fit injuria applies in this regard. This policy should be given all publicity and announced to the world at large.

Of course, It will create outbursts of opposition from local and international lobbyists, but when they realise that Malta means business, the message will surely be relayed to the Libyan points of departure by the local aliens, armed as they are with satellite phones and Internet connections. It should have the desired effect very soon.

Thirdly, Malta should revert to indefinite detention in cases where applications for refugee status have been turned down. Once presence is illegal it should always remain illegal. Passage of time can never make an illegal situation legal.

Those who have not qualified for refugee status should be immediately repatriated to their country of origin and not allowed to wonder around flaunting humanitarian status and enjoying Maltese hospitality imposed on their hosts through illegal entry in the first place. Until this can be done, they should be detained.

Forward interception

Forward interception appears to be the only solution that is likely to stop the flow of illegal immigration at source. If Europe is interested in stemming this flow of illegal immigrants - which is very doubtful - it should not be too difficult for erstwhile idle European navies, lying at anchor uselessly in their bases, to set up a picket-line just outside Libyan territorial waters and within sight of land to head off and turn back any boatload of aliens venturing out of North African points to cross the central Mediterranean.

A dozen frigates, one from each nation, should easily be able to exercise surveillance along the Libyan and Tunisian coastline. Australia has practised such picketing when thousands of Asian aliens tried to enter the country some years back, and with great success, too. Malta does not have a navy to do this. This can only be done through a concerted effort of the maritime nations of the EU.

However, until the EU gets its act together, we must do our bit. The Government and other opinion leaders should draw their strength from the unprecedented consensus that exists on the island among all sectors of the population - young and old, rich and poor, Nationalists and Labourites. There is no time for dilly dallying and pussy footing. The time for action is now.