Refugees or not

The Times (September 28) carried two significant items on illegal immigrants: the editorial Time Is Pressing and Henry Frendo's letter Refugee: To Be Or Not To Be.

The editorial rightly underlined the European nature of the problem. Illegal immigrants are attracted to rich and big countries, especially if a strong historical and cultural relationship exists. It is no coincidence that illegal immigrants originating from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia take the direction of Italy: it is big and rich and occupied those countries for parts of the 20th century, leaving its mark on the population's culture and imagination. Malta happens to be on their path and they land here by accident or mistake. This situation does not give Libya the right to use illegal immigrants as a political weapon against Italy or anybody else.

The editorial also clearly showed what the Maltese public has long understood: We are not getting refugees, but Africans in search of a better life. This is confirmed in the letter of Prof. Frendo, chairman of the Refugees Appeals Board, referring to "those relatively few bona fide asylum seekers". These are a very small percentage of the thousands of illegal immigrants we are getting. So the question arises: is the Maltese government right in taking a bona fide humanitarian stance when the vast majority are abusing our goodness and trying to get a free ride on laws intended for bona fide asylum seekers? Prof. Frendo's letter shows how some of these people, besides not being bona fide asylum seekers, use our country for criminal activities. Is it not time we looked at the matter from a more down-to-earth and realistic perspective?