Michael Conti, Ħamrun
Migrants should not be treated like criminals
I was glad that Ruben Bonello (Save Them And Then Repatriate Them To Rich Oil Producing Countries, July 23) wrote that it is necessary to save illegal immigrants from drowning, something not everybody unfortunately agrees with. However, I find that his letter includes a number of blind spots.
I would like to know what kind of VIP treatment Mr Bonello is referring to when one talks about overcrowded, bare rooms, tents and warehouses - which sometimes can just be called cages - with complete lack of privacy and an extremely limited amount of toilets or showers, as well as poor health conditions. Apart from this, one must also mention a situation where non-English-speaking people are talked to in broken English, and occasionally, or not-so-occasionally, insulted in Maltese. This "quasi-VIP treatment" is such that if animals were locked up in such conditions, the SPCA would surely make an uproar about it. I assumed that VIPs were treated better than this...
I would also like to know from where Mr Bonello got the idea that immigrants are paid €140 monthly. If he's referring to refugees may I remind him that illegal immigrants and refugees are not the same thing, although the latter very often have to enter a country illegally. Refugees are people who have left their country because they are unwilling or unable to seek protection from that country because of well-founded fear of persecution. This is the definition of the Geneva Convention, which was an effort to give some form of status to the people who had to flee for their lives during World War II. Now the tide has turned. Europe is a rich continent and other countries are in strife. Isn't it time we used with others the same measure we wanted used with ourselves?
I am not implying that Malta can bear this alone. I am glad in fact that Mr Bonello mentioned the money and burden-sharing issues. However, as one can see, help from much richer European countries is slow to come! This does not however give us the right to trample on other people's rights or needs. Criminalising illegal entry of people into a country (i.e. treating people as criminals because of lack of administrative papers) surely doesn't enable people fleeing for their lives to be treated as they deserve. Keeping people in detention centres, as Mr Bonello suggests, surely is not the way to treat such people. Detention is an administrative punishment for a crime committed. Arriving in a country and asking for refugee status is not a crime. So people should not be treated as if they were criminals.
As regards the Muslim presence in Malta because of immigration, may I first of all remind Mr Bonello that a large number of migrants who arrive in Malta are Christian, contrary to what most people think. Secondly, the fact that a number of the people who arrive are Muslims should not in itself pose a problem for a tolerant country. I think that the fear of a drastic increase in Muslim population in Malta due to the possibility of marrying four women (something which is State controlled) is a result of a misinformed opinion. Also it is worth remembering that US State Department reports are not objective but reflect the US's politics and interests. As regards Mr Bonello's suggestion to repatriate Muslims to a Muslim country, I think that using religion in such a discriminatory way is actually another form of religious fundamentalism which can be a result of unjustified fears.
Finally, may I remind Mr Bonello that, contrary to what transpires from his last paragraph, the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service is not to promote illegal immigration. Their role is to try and make sure that people who claim refugee status are given proper and dignified treatment, and that their claims are processed in a fair way. However, owing to the deplorable condition of detention centres it is also important to push for humane treatment of all people on our island, whatever their situation is.
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L Galea
Aug 5th 2008, 21:40
Mr Conti,
with due respect, the ILLEGAL immigrants are CRIMINALS because when they enter OUR country without proper identification they are in breach of the Law.
Entry into any country without proper documentation entitles that country to consider you as a criminal and expel you on the same means of transport that you enter it.
I look forward to the day when our Pair of Strong Hands Honourable Prime Minister will ask Parliament to enact a law similar to that enected by Berlusconi where it makes entry into the country without proper documentation subject to between 6 months to 4 years imprisonment including the expropriation in favour of the State of any property sold or rented to ILLEGAL immigrants
That is the only way to save Malta and the Maltese citizens from the ILLEGAL immigrants INVASION as has aptly been called by our Pair of Strong Hands Honourable Prime Minister.
john fenech
Aug 5th 2008, 18:58
Illegal immigrants must be treated with all due respect period, on the other hand should those penning a balanced and positive article or comments, be treated like imbeciles or raving lunatics or in perfect mental faculty but lacking political correctness?
If the illegal immigrants are not criminals, on the other hand am I one, for speaking the truth in eternal hope that the local authorities will demand a permanent solution for this tragedy!
While I don’t have a political agenda, Scaremonger is a person who spreads frightening rumour and stirs up trouble. Victor Zammit these are facts not a fable from Ali Baba:
Since 2000 10000 illegal immigrants landed on our shores, 1600 in the first seven months.
The police force and the AFM are stretching their recourses to cope with this phenomenon. Quoting the Police Commissioner John Rizzo (DOI & Independent 10/07/04) that if two detainees ask to go to hospital, it literally means that a police station has to be closed.
Accommodation to house the illegal immigrants are getting scarce by the minute.
Each illegal immigrant kept in detention cost €70 per day, or 25.5 Million Euro per year per 1000 illegal immigrants. Source as above.
Raymond Sammut
Aug 5th 2008, 17:17
@ Victor Zammit
I shall address your last question.
The several means of transportation that you list, all follow planned schedules and aviation/maritime procedures. This allows authorities to monitor the health and safety aspects of transport, and to identify passengers, among other things.
Illegal immigration, on the other hand, is driven by criminals. Non-seaworthy boats leave either from some point along the Libyan coastline, or are dispatched at a convenient spot from a mother-ship. As a result, illegal immigrants appear unannounced, with identification based merely on word of mouth. Early last June, the issue of children arriving along with illegal immigrants was raised by MP George Vella in the Maltese Parliament. (The Times, 10th June 2008.) The Maltese authorities cannot even verify whether these children had been kidnapped, let alone who their father is. Also, if I may mention in passing, in countries like Australia, boats used by illegal immigrants are destroyed by burning to prevent damage from wood-boring pests.
Now it's my turn to ask you a question. Do you honestly think, Mr Zammit, that the latter type of transportation is anything like the ones you are referring to?
Victor Zammit
Aug 5th 2008, 15:57
I say it again. When SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL problems get out of hands, we need a scapegoat to hang our failures on. The immigrants (legal or illegal) perfectly fits.
The hardest thing to do in politics is to create interest in your party.
"Creating fear of the Africans or assuming that they are all Muslims immigrants, and then selling yourself as the best person to handle them, has been an effective way for Italian politicians to mobilize voters." However, while it’s still too early for Italian to celebrate! In Malta we have same politically depressed parties that are hungry for power. The hopeful parties would use everything possible to scaremonger the public.
The funniest thing I hear and actually could not grasp logic behind it is that, immigrants are changing our culture, increasing crimes (do peoples really read papers) !
Few weeks ago, somebody asked the following question, I copy:
Is there a race or a creed that is immune against, disease carriers, drug dealers, prostitution, etc, etc.?
Is there a mean of transport (Boat, Five starts curse liner, private jet or a plane) that make one immune against disease?
Can any body answer please?
Jean-Pierre Tabone Adami
Aug 5th 2008, 14:51
In an article replete with reason and humanity, Michael Conti points out that some of the refugees are Christians not Muslims. In that sentence he tries to assuage his readers who have maybe barely widened their "circle of friends" to include black Christians, but who could never embrace in the same way a black Muslim (or Animist). John Spiteri rapidly fires back a "low" figure of 32% being Christian - I suppose 32% of a "flood" of immigrants is still a terrifying plague!
The essence of the argument is simple. A human merits respect whatever his presumed religion. Attempting to make an issue out of the difference between Christian and Muslim show some for what they really are - xenophobes for whom one class of people are more deserving than another, whether due to race, religion or colour.
That immigration is problematic for a densely populated country and that we require assistance is non-controversial (however if you really want to see countries in trouble you are better off looking at the immigrants' countries of origin). But agreeing that a person from East Berlin, Tibet, Somalia or Marsaxlokk bleed the same blood is too hard for some.
Raymond Sammut
Aug 5th 2008, 14:15
Lots of nice talk, Mr Conti, but like many before you, you miss the mark. Immigrants arriving in Malta illegally are called "queue jumpers" in a country like Australia, for example. Even worse, they had paid hefty amounts to criminals so that they could be systematically positioned in a way whereby the AFM has to go and risk its neck to pick them up. They empower criminal networks while cheating the Maltese authorities.
Unlike Malta, Slovenia adopted a tough stance on illegal immigrants entering Slovenia. This EU country very rarely, if ever, grants asylum, and unequivocally advocates repatriation. UNHCR complained strongly, but it has now backed off because Slovenia has chosen instead to give asylum to genuine refugees located at UN refugee camps. UNHCR had to swallow its own pill.
Those who try to justify the behaviour of illegal immigrants are, in effect, even if unwittingly, encouraging cheating authorities and the empowerment of criminals. Instead, we need to be firm with illegal immigrants, and point out to them that what they have done is unacceptable. If no other country is prepared to receive them, then they have to seriously consider returning to their home country at the earliest.
Sandro Pace
Aug 5th 2008, 13:33
The letter seems to wrongly assume that all illegal immigrants are granted or deserve the refugee status after processing, which is not the case. Only some 53% are given a sort of status, mostly temporary humanitarian (an abuse of the word temporary), a status which has now a very wide definition. Failed asylum seekers remain illegal immigrants.
In any case, all unsustainable if this rate remains. If at all, our rights are being trampled.
John Spiteri
Aug 5th 2008, 12:19
i beg to differ with the line "may I first of all remind Mr Bonello that a large number of migrants who arrive in Malta are Christian, contrary to what most people think." Henry Frendo's excellent set of articles in this very paper clearly indicated that the majority of the illegal immigrants (those that come from Africa) are Muslims. 68% if i recall well. People should stick to facts when arguing something.
Mark Grima
Aug 5th 2008, 11:35
Well done Michael Conti. A rare and very welcome voice of tolerance and reason. Whilst accepting that we are facing a genuine problem, we should all do well to bear the following fact in mind when debating this issue: Every single human being on earth is descended from African immigrants. Even Norman Lowell.
laurence schembri
Aug 5th 2008, 09:39
Congratulations...well put.
Franco Farrugia
Aug 5th 2008, 09:34
I partially disagree with Mr Conti. It is not financial assistance that Malta needs - it is assistance to send these illegal immigrants out of Malta.
In the case of Malta, 'criminalising illegal entry of people' must be observed and I am all in favour of the detention policy.
Detention does not always mean that the person in question is a criminal. During the last war, when Maltese people were exiled to Uganda, they were put under detention, in spite of the fact that they had not committed any crime.
When these illegal immigrants are Muslim or Christians, ... whether they are African or Australian, American or whatever... their place is not in tiny, heavily-overcrowded Malta!
Contrary to Mr Conti, I agree that it would be tragic for the country if the detention policy had to be removed.
This notwithstanding, I would be the first to condemn any action which further escalates the plight of the immigrants in detention centres. They are human beings - but they have broken the law of the country.