Shedding crocodile tears over illegal immigrants (1)

This government has been pinning its hopes to solve the problem of illegal immigration on help from the European Union and others. We have been hearing about its diplomatic efforts ad nauseam - but in the meantime thousands of illegal immigrants keep pouring in. Each year we are breaking new records of arrivals.

We have to realise that a small nation like ours does not have the political and economical punch to extract a diplomatic solution. Much bigger nations have been sacrificed while the international community stood by just watching tragedies unfold. Recent events have highlighted the hypocrisy of countries in the European Union when they rebuke our government for failing to assist illegal immigrants stranded outside our already very large search and rescue zone.

Were they really worried about the illegal immigrants losing their lives or was it that they were annoyed about taking in a few of these unfortunate boat people to their own countries instead of dumping them on our minute island? How come Libya was barely mentioned as the main culprit for failing to act when they were well within their search and rescue waters?

The reason is obvious: While Libya has oil and natural gas resources for sale it also offers the potential of lucrative trade deals especially in the sale of arms to this country by ex-colonial powers. On the other hand, tiny Malta has nothing much to offer and therefore can be easily bullied into submission. Indeed the chorus of our critics singing in tune makes one wonder if there exists a conspiracy to turn the whole of our island into a refugee centre, a sort of Ellis Island in the Med. On many occasions now our patrols have been serving as water taxis offering free rides to Malta day and night at a call from a satellite phone - certainly an effective way to "Brand Malta".

At this stage a responsible government who is answerable to its own people cannot leave the future of our small nation to be decided by others. A servile and accommodating stance will never produce any reaction and useless talks should be replaced by firm and appropriate actions. Our limited resources are already being stretched to breaking point and we must henceforth start reacting on our own initiative. Geniune outsiders like Bob Geldof have also warned us about the impending upheavals if we are left on our own to tackle this problem. Instead of receiving rebukes we must start issuing warnings that henceforth we shall be taking unilateral actions to safeguard our national interests.

To start with, a practical and effective way to limit this influx is by providing fuel and assistance to these people stranded at sea so that they may continue with their journey while encouraging others to leave our island in sturdy boats to reach their destinations. A similar proposition was made by an ex-Prime Minister who I am sure must know something about how one should deal with such matters when the future of a nation is at stake.

Let those countries that have failed us in this hour of need raise their voices in protest, shedding crocodile tears for the loss of life at sea while doing nothing to alleviate this situation. If they are genuine in their beliefs they should have come forward a long time ago to put a stop to this invasion of our island by exercising collective pressure on Libya while sharing our burden in proportion to their country's size and capabilities. Which they have failed to do in both cases. Shame on those EU partners that have criticised us and on European Commissioner Franco Frattini who is also dancing to their tune.