Get serious on illegal migration, Bob Geldof tells the EU

Europe must get serious about the problem of illegal immigration that is hitting Malta, insisted Bob Geldof, one of the world's leading anti-poverty campaigners, claiming that the €2 million budgeted by the EU Border Agency to combat the problem was a joke!

"It is not for Malta to solve the issue, but it will certainly be Malta's problem unless we all deal with it together. No problem in the world today can be handled unilaterally - and certainly not if you are a small country."

Malta should get as much help as it can, and so should the people who come here, he told members of the business community and journalists at a breakfast, hosted by HSBC and Vodafone at the Radisson SAS Golden Sands Resort & Spa, prior to his concert in aid of the YMCA and the homeless at Manoel Island last night.

"It is not fair that Malta, or Lampedusa, should bear the brunt. You are at the forward point of Europe and you have to be supported.

"This is the beginning of the problem and it needs to be addressed extremely seriously, but Malta cannot be left on its own. You have a population of 350,000 people. What happens when there are 30,000 of them (illegal immigrants) - which is nothing, yet it would be ten pet cent of your population? People would start getting racist - fear of the stranger taking their jobs - so the matter has to be dealt with," the man fighting global economic injustice emphasised.

Clearly, Malta cannot take the waves of illegal immigrants being washed upon its shores on an almost regular basis, said Bob Geldof, an immigrant himself, having left Ireland for London when it was the poorest country in Europe. "And Europe will not take them, no matter what its rhetoric is!"

The rock star-cum-activist, whose mission in life is to make poverty history, explained to an enthralled audience that the way to stop immigration is to "build up the economies of these countries... If we do not build trade in Africa and they do not build it by themselves, there will be wave upon wave of immigrants, which Europe will not be able to sustain socially," he warned.

"Boys and girls walk across deserts to get to us. But they are not going to get a life in Malta. You are a staging post and you will be held hostage by the bigger powers of Europe, which are not taking the issue seriously."

For the man behind the Band Aid, Live Aid and last year's Live 8 concerts, through which he made music and political history, managing to move mountains on the issue of Third World debt relief and poverty, the situation was "empirical". Nevertheless, things were not being done.

The condition of the world "annoys" Bob Geldof because it can be resolved. "It is like a business conundrum that you can deal with and unravel.

"The poorest people on our planet could easily be as wealthy as we are and stop coming to Malta in boats. The logic is so compelling, it is preposterous. The seven richest countries, with the combined GDP of trillions upon trillions of dollars, cannot come up with the aid they promised this year - what Bill Gates makes in an hour!

"Malta is a small community and the EU is a strange beast. You can punch way above your weight, together with other like-minded states, and it will have to take you seriously."

Bob Geldof, who had done his homework on Malta's history and political situation, yesterday captured everyone's attention with his 'lecture' on the situation in Africa, debt slavery corruption and trade issues, broaching a serious and complex subject with a simple, captivating and passionate approach, punctuated by a witty and spontaneous sense of humour, and further spiced up by the odd, forceful and unapologetic four-letter word.

Looking typically dishevelled, but stylish in his espadrilles and loose trousers, with his trademark mop of grey hair and dark shades he never removed, Bob Geldof broke the ice by asking for a coffee in desperation as soon as he sat down to breakfast.

But he later pointed out that waking up early for such a good cause was worth it.

As to why he came to such a small country for such a small event, he said in all sincerity: "I'm getting paid for this," laughing off the "living saint" tag he has often been accorded.

"Frankly, this was just another gig for me." But when he realised what the YMCA was all about, it made it all the more worthwhile.

Bob Geldof spent a good part of his opening address paying tribute to the YMCA and its chairman, Jean Paul Mifsud, a "social entrepreneur".

"What he does is extraordinary!" he insisted.

In his mind, the YMCA had other connotations - from gay to overtly religious. But he soon realised it is a "living, vibrant piece of the social network" in Malta and was happy to be raising awareness about its cause.

"There is an overwhelming logic and compulsion to the work Jean Paul has been doing. In essence, the compelling story is that there are social conditions in Malta that are intolerable, and this is an absurdity in a country that is so small.

"It behoves you to take care of the most vulnerable in your community because you must know them and see them; you cannot avoid them as you could in London."

Bob Geldof knows something about homelessness. He pitched up in London as an immigrant and, typically, slept on the streets, "which is fun when you're a kid. You have a whole life ahead of you. You don't feel like you're homeless. In fact, I was glad because my home sucked!

"... I lived in Gatwick airport, Tom Hanks-like, for three months, which was good; it was warm, there was a shower and it was free!

"But there isn't a Gatwick airport for every battered wife and children to escape the brutish onslaughts of their own family.

"This little rock cannot afford to have its own children beaten up; it cannot have its women assaulted. You are a civilised society; the product of the greatest civilisations ever.

"This place has to be adult and responsible not just with regard to the people arriving at its shores daily on boats, but more specifically and much more importantly to its own people."

At the end of the breakfast, Foreign Minister Michael Frendo presented Bob Geldof with a copy of the ministry's Overseas Development Policy, a discussion paper that was finalised in time to coincide with his arrival in Malta.

He was also given the special commemorative stamps, bearing his image, by Maltapost plc, although he jokingly questioned the word "special" since the same was recently done for Sting - a long-time friend.