By coincidence or design?

Is it possible that the authorities have not noticed the tremendous coincidence arising from the fact that most of the "illegal immigrants" are arriving here in a number always ranging between 27 and 29 people? And has anybody noticed that some (I emphasise some) of these boat people seem in a good and reasonably clean condition when they land in Malta, which could not be the case were they in that cramped boat for a week without hygienic facilities.

This lends weight to the persistent rumour that these poor people are being ferried out in ships and, when these ships are a few miles from shore, they are lowered down in standard sized boats, given a mobile phone set with the appropriate contact numbers and released to fend for themselves for the last part of the journey.

Such a business (because it is nothing less) would only be possible through a well-organised network set up in North Africa and which is allowed to operate freely in those countries to be able to profiteer from these poor souls.

Of course there are many more who genuinely brave the open seas for many days, and in such cases, I get the impression that those who are lucky enough to be salvaged are normally in much larger numbers - which reinforces my earlier point.

I was therefore just wondering as to what kind of investigation, if any, is carried out by the police to trace the origin of the boats and especially their engines.

If this investigation were done with some dedication, it might just be possible to get to the source of this business and stop such inhumane trafficking.