Migrants land at Wied iz-Zurrieq

@M. Mercieca.

A VERY IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION IF I MAY:

Mr Anthony Formosa keyed in ' ... EU wants these illegal immigrants perhaps also in an illegal way....' (please refer to his comment below). I DID NOT key in this statement.

My reply to Mr Anthony Formosa's above statement was:
'If, as you say the ‘EU wants these illegal immigrants perhaps also in an illegal way ', than the EU you read about is worse than any criminal organization, which naturally upholds ILLEGALITY over LEGALITY! You may have (no offence meant) misunderstood the article, which incidentally you did not cite its source, as a serious comment should ethically include' (please refer to my comment below).

@ M. Mercieca

Thank you.

A small clarification re your comment if I may:

It was Mr Anthony Formosa (NOT ME) who keyed in: 'Amazingly, from a recent comment I read EU wants these illegal immigrants perhaps also in an illegal way, ...'

My answer to this sentence (as you can read from my comment below:) was : 'than the EU you read about is worse than any criminal organization, which naturally upholds ILLEGALITY over LEGALITY! You may have (no offence meant) misunderstood the article, which incidentally you did not cite its source, as a serious comment should ethically include'.

F. Camilleri

How are you my friend?
You deserve full mark for what you said: (


If, as you say the ‘EU wants these illegal immigrants perhaps also in an illegal way ', than the EU you read about is worse than any criminal organization, which naturally upholds ILLEGALITY over LEGALITY! You may have (no offence meant) misunderstood the article, which incidentally you did not cite its source, as a serious comment should ethically include. )

@ Sandro Pace

Ageing EU population
The move comes as the EU is increasingly confronted with labour and skill shortages.
In 2007, the union's working age population came to around 235 million out of roughly 500 million EU citizens. By 2040, however, the number is expected to fall by almost 50 million - even if current flows of migrants continue.
This trend puts at risk pensions, health and social protection systems and is likely to require more public spending, the commission says.
In his paper, Commissioner Barrot calls on member states to promote "legal immigration", meaning sending out information to potential migrants so they understand the requirements and procedures for legal entry and residency in the EU.
EU capitals are encouraged to develop "national immigration profiles" providing data on the number of immigrants, their participation in national labour market and its future requirements.
In addition, this should go hand-in-hand with more investments into pro-employment measures such as trainings for immigrants, which could help matching their skills and labour markets' needs.

@ Sandro Pace

This is the official site of EU information. You will see loads of information about EU need of immigrants and the population deficit in EU
Just click and read please
http://euobserver.com/9/26333/?rk=1
Brussels to push for EU wide rules on migrants and asylum seekers
16.06.2008 @ 18:34 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As part of efforts to fulfil Europe's hunger for workers and alleviate the pressure of illegal migration, the European Commission is set to kick off a lengthy legislative process aimed at putting in place a common immigration policy - something the bloc has been trying to achieve since 1999.

"We want to help those who are really refugees to come to Europe without dying at seas"

A. Formosa, better still I think we should all pitch in and send over a luxury cruise liner over to Africa so that these poor migrants can arrive here in the best possible conditions... this whole catholic nation will then be a contender for the 'Heart of Gold' award.

The invasion (Gonzi) continues. I ask what happens when one breaks the law? These are entering our country illegally. We have well over 10,200 of them at an approximate cost of 30 euro each daily for their upkeep. How does the Australians and Americans deal with illegal immigrants? What are our elected MPs saying?? Sweet nothing. If this is not a crises then I don’t know what is. Our elected members talk about everything under the sun but do you hear them mentioning this catastrophe? @ Charles Buttigieg. How right you are but… IS ANYBODY LISTENING?

At least we have a good rescue team that have a good lookout for the illegal imigrants that arrive on our shores.. pity is that OUR MALTESE army was not as able to find our maltese brothers lost out at sea. Maybe a 12 meter modern fishing boat with the latest technology is much less visible than a rowing boat . Thanks for the armed forces for providing such a high level of security!
My prayers are with all the persons involvd with such a tragic loss - meantime its tie for our goverment to wake up and provide us Maltese citizens with a better security!

I have nothing against other nations, Even my wife she is also foreingner. But I have a request to our Government. Since we are not getting help by others EU members to allocate these illegal Migrants. We see and read every single day how hard it is on our tax payer and how much it is costing Malta for each and every one of them Then I suggest that after two months that they arrive they all should be given a Maltese Status as being Maltese and a passaport. Then they are legal to travel away from Malta under the Shengen Visa and a lot of them will settle some where else this way we as Mlatese will bring our burden to minimum and many of these illegal Migrants will find another place to live and be more happier. This way the EU cannot say NO to Help our Illegal Imigration. This is the only answer for the others EU countries and less expense towards out tax payer....

How clever of Charles J Buttigieg to propose sending all illegal immigrants back to the place of origin. How stupid of the authorites not to have thought of this brian wave before . And what may I ask happens if they are sent back to Libya and are refused entry by the Libyan authorities.? We are not diferent in Malta, ask Spain, Italy, France and Greece, just to name a few.

We're the laughing stock of the world!!!! When I lived in Malta, back in the days when Malta wasn't part of the EU, my children studied in France and Germany. In order to have a students' VISA they had to show that they had enough money for the year, have a sound knowledge of the local language, they had to undertake medical tests, etc. Everyone entering a country, even on holiday, needs to comply with its rules. No leadership will lead a country to big disaster. Have a look at the 'laisser faire' attitude towards immigration of the UK...the country is facing one of its worst crisis in history and about 300,000 English people are leaving the country! The situation in Malta will be even worse.

When big businesses pump so much money into organisations (not just on a national level, but also of a European dimension) that affect directly or indirectly the laws enacted, they surely expect some form of a return. With inflation so high, and labour supply ALLEGEDLY so low, the same businesses need some way of keeping their labour costs down, and their profits soaring exponentially. Long live social justice, law-abiding taxpayers, the rule of law and order, and illegal immigration, frontex and the EU... and let´s protect the rights of those who break the law and penalise law-abiding victims... Simply disgusting.

@ Anthony Formosa

"when they arrive we should provide them with our surplus of housing "

I have already asked this question before but, so far, none has been forthcoming : How many of YOUR 'surplus' houses have you donated / are ready to donate? How many of these illegal immigrants are you prepared to sponsor and take into your own home or employment?

It is very easy to be 'generous' with other people's property!

If as stated by the media that these illegals are coming from Libya, Then only one thing is certain - that Libya has no clue who is entering and leaving her territory. No security.
Therefore, Libya is easy prey for invasion and takeover as it cannot control its own borders.

@ Anthony Formosa
This issue has nothing to do with Catholicism and racism. It is an issue, which demands common sense, guts and will to solve it.

Basing arguments on Catholicism and racism is way to make people shut up and give up, rather than INTELLIGENTLY analysing the implications of this issue.

If, as you say the ‘EU wants these illegal immigrants perhaps also in an illegal way ', than the EU you read about is worse than any criminal organization, which naturally upholds ILLEGALITY over LEGALITY! You may have (no offence meant) misunderstood the article, which incidentally you did not cite its source, as a serious comment should ethically include.

Being members of the TRUE LEGAL EU as we surely are, bought a good measure of good and improvement to our island. However, this does not mean that we are owned by the EU and argue as you did that ‘IF EU wants like this then we should be like this. ‘

We are all duty-bound to provide a secure environment in our country for the present (and more importantly) for the future of our children. These will have to face serious problems unless we solve this serious issue.

EU can have all the illegals transported to Belgium and given accomodation and work over there. We don't have room for more - we're already packed with our own people.

One foreign resident recently returned to Malta from a short holiday abroad and the nonsense this person had to go through at the airport is unbelieable. Maltese immigration are paranoid when it comes to legals in Malta but very EU abiding when it comes to illegal immigrants.

Since the EU is not protecting us, we should protect ourselves and use our own home made laws to do that.

@ Charles Buttigieg: 'Without the required travel documents'. Please enlighten me: without such documents, in which part of the world are you going to send them back to???? How are you going to assess their 'place of origin'?
And what if that 'place of origin' happens to be a powerful country which repeatedly refuses to cooperate????? What, then? Break ties?

Whether the EU wants illegal immigrants should be heard from the horse mouth, and not from 'comments' around here. Cause I never heard it.

Vacant properties are Maltese private property. Who is going to pay for it? Unless you are suggesting that the government requisition empty properties to allocate Africans in it. But that would be over the owners' dead bodies, of course.

Besides, even if this insane idea is theoretically taken, the number of vacant property is given at about 20,000. At this rate it will soon fill up. Then what? Build more?

Also this article fails to mention that after police counted them on the shore and then counting them again on the bus they left. LEAVING ONE BEHIND. We had to call 112 again to send someone back for him. ONLY IN MALTA.

I was there yesterday and if it wasn't for a bunch of people fishing and us watching them fish, these migrants would have landed in complete darkness without nobody knowing. They arrived in a boat with a 9.9 Yamaha outboard. They were 28 of them in a boat not longer than 15Ft. How many of you believe they came directly from Libya? The fact that there are over 50 fishing boats + AFM patrol boats searching the area for little Theo lost at sea, make one think that they started their "dangerous" journey just after sunset. This means that they were dropped off here by another ship, very close to the shore. These are the things our government should be investigating!! Which ships were so close to our shores at that particular time of the day? Why is Frontex ineffective?? Simple, because it is looking for something that its not there. Most of these migrants are not coming directly from Libya so how can Frontex find them? 28 people on a 15Ft boat with a 9.9 outboard. Please don't make me laugh.

@ Charles J Buttigieg

You keyed in: ‘Why are we different in Malta?’

The answer is simple. The ones at the HELM supposedly running the country are weak puppets. They just smile around and are experts ONLY in ANNOUNCING their colleague’s minister success in bringing to a successful end the hot issue dominating the news at the beginning of this week. In the meantime they simply disappeared!

Our MEP’s are as weak as snowballs in Hell. Worse still, the most promising one who inspired confidence and a sense of responsibility towards his home country is shamelessly betraying us all (cf. The Times of Malta, ‘Penalties for illegal employment should not be so harsh’, 19th July 2008).

always 27 or 28 'passengers'. coincidence?

I think it's time that the media stop reporting these arrivals, and when they arrive we should provide them with our surplus of housing and a work permit. Amazingly, from a recent comment I read EU wants these illegal immigrants perhaps also in an illegal way, so why all this fuss and waste of resources paying Frontex, and meetings with other countries. IF EU wants like this then we should be like this and no more moaning from the most happy people and racism from the most catholic country.

Any fare paying passenger arriving by sea, land or air without the required travel documents in any part of the world is repatriated back to the place of origin on the first available mode of transportation. No police action, no court proceedings just an order by an immigration official. Why are we different in Malta?