If Geldof can say it, why can't we, ANR asks

Bob Geldof got the thumbs-up from Republican National Alliance, which congratulated the rock star and anti-poverty campaigner for his frank comments on illegal immigration when he was in Malta this week.

Calling the EU's financial allocation to Mediterranean states for border patrols "a joke", Bob Geldof warned that the problem was only the tip of the iceberg.

" ... 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 10 per cent of your population?

"People would start getting racist - fear of the stranger taking their jobs - so the matter has to be dealt with," he told a news conference.

ANR, which campaigns for stronger measures against illegal immigration, backed this position, saying the EU for the large part is made up of former colonisers of the African continent and that, therefore, they have a moral obligation to draw up a development programme that would help the African people.

"It is a pity that when someone from the ANR says these things he is labelled racist and charged in court but when it is Bob Geldof saying it, the comments seem as though they come from a prophet. What he did was say the same thing in different words," the group said.

In another statement, the alliance said it agrees with low-cost airlines as long as they operate within a regulatory structure, which insures a level playing field.

"The government cannot keep ignoring the reality of low-cost airlines especially when the latest statistics show clearly that tourism is doing badly," ANR said.