Immigration problem (1)

Mr Edward Fenech (The Sunday Times, May 28) could not have judged the concerns of the Maltese about the illegal immigration problem more wrongly.

The financial and economic problems are merely just one aspect. Although not a great deal of economic sense is needed to realise that in such a small economy even the amount of what he claims to be "unwanted" jobs, is finite.

He is also misunderstanding what "multiculturalism" his targeted movements are cautious of. He superficially sees it in different amounts of Catholic fervour, which are liberal individual choices more than anything, and which were never a problem. The problem lies with large-scale immigration-driven multiculturalism, which burned Paris, bombed London and Madrid: strong groups with an entirely different culture settling and establishing themselves on other people's territories. That in our case it is being imposed on us, makes the political opposition to it more legitimate.

Neither is our country as multi-ethnic as he claims it to be. Such a term refers to countries like Cyprus or the former Yugoslavia with internationally recognised ethnic minorities. AD has clearly embarked on a campaign to create an identity crisis, yet they have as much chance of convincing people with these arguments as they have of convincing anyone that immigration and tourism are the same. Fortunately, the Maltese know what they are and what they are not, have their identity, not least an ethnic one irrespective of AD's recognition of it, and they can sense a threat when they see one.   

An unstoppable amount of Africans on these islands will destabilise the population and the country, irrespective of their religion, though this is also a significant concern. It would have created the same reaction anywhere. Money, wherever it comes from, will not solve the problem unless it is used for identification and repatriation. Our country is not for sale, and we cannot continue to waste land on an interminable amount of accommodation centres or swarm the place with immigrants. No population has the right to be here in such an amount, with settlement intent. Dispersion will still lead to concentration.

Although no fault of anything Maltese, the whole asylum processing system has been overwhelmed. To select the few, we are ending up with almost all of them. It is understandable to all that our country cannot handle it anymore, whether refugees or economic migrants. Yet the impression one has about the derogations in the Dublin agreement, the initial signing of which was already a grave mistake, is that the EU Commission will forever remain in promise mode or there will be little significant burden-sharing. Even other 'multicultural' countries are finding it hard to absorb more.   

Unless our government, which is ultimately obliged and only responsible in the national interest, takes a stand and imposes deadlines, our plight is not going to be taken seriously. Nothing replaces an agreement with the last country the immigrants are leaving from, to return them all there unconditionally, unless significant, timely burden-sharing is forthcoming. Our country cannot continue to pay the price of others' disregard for their obligations. If this is still not possible, further drastic measures should be taken.  

All this is impinging on the rights of the Maltese as a nation. If this situation persists, it will endanger the social stability and living space of our future generations.