Thursday, 24th July 2008
Illegal employment should be stopped
Over the past year, I have been closely following - and supporting - a new proposed EU law that would toughen penalties against employers who are caught employing irregular immigrants illegally. I agree that sanctions should be made harsher since they are too soft and do not present a real deterrent.
As a result, irregular immigrants are all too often employed illegally - and exploited - in Malta as well as in other EU countries.
This cannot be right as it makes Europe more attractive for illegal immigration, exploits immigrants, cheats regular workers out of their jobs and hurts law-abiding employers.
Proposed new sanctions against defaulting employers would include tougher financial penalties, the payment of outstanding salaries, taxes and social security contributions and the cost of returning illegal immigrants, the disqualification of companies from public contracts and from EU funds and, in certain instances, even criminal sanctions. I support all these sanctions.
Yet, the report Penalties For Illegal Employment Should Not Be So Harsh (July 19) inadvertently quotes me out of context and gives the wrong impression that I oppose harsher sanctions. This is not the case at all.
In my intervention during last week's committee debate, as EPP spokesman, I reacted to a representative of Business Europe who expressed himself against this proposal. I stated that this law was indeed necessary even if the business sector looked at it with some concern.
Moreover, I added that, contrary to what was being proposed by the Commission, the new law should not grant temporary residence permits for irregular immigrants caught in illegal employment under whatever pretext. They should be returned without delay.
On sanctions, I agreed with the above-listed sanctions proposed by the Commission, except for one - closing down of businesses - since I find this to be disproportionate on businesses and would even harm legitimate workers employed with the same business. I said that, if anything, this kind of sanction should be reserved for situations which merited criminal sanctions.
Illegal employment is illegal and it should be stopped.
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Comments
I do not know what there is to joke about in this issue. Illegal immigrants and any commercial activities arising from this human tragedy is still illegal and so criminal, even if the law and humanity do not always go hand in hand. I think Mr Busuttil was entitled to this clarification ,if any, was ever needed.
"Some of the sanctions are too severe, like the possibility of closing down a company caught employing illegal immigrants. This is too harsh and such treatment should be reserved for criminals," he insisted
This is what was quoted by the Times, the way I see it, taken in any illegal employment context the meaning is very clear.
I do not think that employment awarded to illegal immigrants should necessarily be illegal.
My understanding is that most illegal immigrants originating from Africa are simply looking for employment (mostly manual work) in Europe. This is the result of a deterioration in African economies and not just civil wars. For example farming in Africa suffered greatly due to subsidies in Europe. Traditionally, it has been normal for African men to travel across borders in their continent at different times of the year to look for labour. Over recent years, however, this mode of searching for work has been yielding less opportunities. This economic pressure has channelled these men northward to countries such as Egypt and Libya. It is at this point when they become involved with criminal networks.
In my view, so long as illegal immigrants cooperate with respective authorities, and agree to return to their homeland at an agreed time, it should be acceptable and reasonable that they be rewarded employment in the meantime. So long as it does not cause hardship to local workers and does not encourage further illegal immigration, such employment can be made to conform with proper procedure.