43 migrants brought to Malta

Joe Morana

Aug 12th 2008, 23:01

People! People! People! As Mr. Markham pointed out, it is useless to rant and rave in this medium over the scourge of illegal immigration, our politicians' reluctance to speak out against it and/or the country from whence it comes. As everyone is well aware each time a politician dared speak out, immediate branding as a racist and ostracism by the hypocrite known as 'colleagues' was his/her fate. Oh, and condemnation to eternal damnation by those who would have had us believe that St. Paul was the first illegal immagrant to Malta! St. Paul was not an illegal immigrant and even if he was, the first illegal immigrant would still have been Homer's Ulysses. Even he was sent packing by the Gods! It will take the collective resolve of the Maltese People to end this once and for all! If government feels incapable of acting in the best interests of the people, perhaps it is time for it to step down, and hand over the affairs of this country to those with the back-bone to place the people's interest first and foremost. Bowing and scraping to false idols is not acceptable! Not now, not ever!

Noel Enriquez

Aug 12th 2008, 21:08

@ F. Camilleri.

Well done and said!

F. Camilleri

Aug 12th 2008, 20:40

@ Joseph Caruana
Your argument runs:
‘Malta is not the only country seeing a massive increase in the influx of illegal immigrants…’.

You categorically accept the fact that our small country has a ‘massive increase in the influx of illegal immigrants…’
Your admission is a repetition of what the rational reasonable comments repeatedly state.
Yet you describe to what you yourself accept as ‘usual lame political arguments’.

THIS ISSUE IS FAR ABOVE LOCAL POLITICS.

REPETITION shows CONCERN.
It shows RIGHTEOUS ANGER against those who we all trusted through our vote irrespective of which political party.
ALL MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT are RESPONSIBLE TO A GREATER OR LESSER EXTENT to GUARD THE LAWS OF OUR LAND rather than compromise them.

Playing cool on the basis that ‘Malta is not the only country seeing a massive increase in the influx of illegal immigrants…’ implies short sightedness (in the metaphorical sense) re the long-term negative implications of ILLEGAL immigration ESPECIALLY where our children/adolescents are concerned.

It is more than obvious as to who ‘should spare a few minutes to get out of the bubble’ he is living in Mr. Caruana.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS A CRIME AND A THREAT AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH.

Corinne Vella

Aug 12th 2008, 18:14

Mark Galea: Try asking her what she was running away from.

Chris Sciberras

Aug 12th 2008, 18:05

This summer is like the last one and the one previous to that. When the weather is fine , we're being invaded by illegal immigrants and jellyfish. And we have to carry the burden for both.

JohnMicallef

Aug 12th 2008, 15:12

yeah, developement of africa. can't you realise that these countries from where most of the immigrants originate are still in a tribal state of civilisation? take rwanda, take somalia, take eritrea, take the congo, the list goes on. the problem can be solved by stopping ghaddafi and his regime from invading european shores silently. whilst frontex is patrolling (hopefully) outside libyan waters, they (or else malta) are asked to provide assistance to distress vessels inside libyan waters (which the libyans refused). hello! wake up malta! the good thing is that we have seen our president and loads others from EU go to libya, hosted in tents and smiling at ghaddafi, boasting from investment EU countries have made in Libya and ghaddafi smiling, why not? foreign investment comming from the same countries who are pinned down by uncontrolled , illegal departures from his shores. by the way, don't forget, libya is an oil rich country.

Kenneth Galea

Aug 12th 2008, 15:01

@Joseph Caruana
Please stop this non sense about Malta not being the only Mediterranean country which is battered by this persistent influx of illegal immigrants. Of course we are aware of Lampedusa and other countries but two wrongs don't make a right and we must address this problem rather than brushing it under the carpet.
As to the development of Africa give them back colonial rule, Africans were looked after properly. The end of colonialism brough Africa down on its knees and dictators took over instead!!! This is why people are leaving in their droves. This does not mean that Malta and other EU countries should bear the brunt. Less than 1% are genuine asylum seekers, the rest are economic migrants who should be deported as soon as the request for asylum is turned down. Both Eriterea and Ethiopia have functioning goverments, why are we keeping the citizens of both countries here???????????

Joanne Micallef

Aug 12th 2008, 15:00

@ Mr Joseph Caruana - NONE of the countries you mentioned is nearly as tiny as Malta, Lampedusa is part of Italy eventually almost all the illegal immigrants on the island will be shifted to mainland Italy. Besides so far proportionally Malta took the largest amount of illegal immigrants per capita.

Our Goverment was not elected to draw up statistics but to govern this Island in the best way possible, staying passive when our Island is being invaded shows not only lack of good governance but also lack of foresight which will undoubtedly be our country’s downfall in the not so distant future.

M.Muscat

Aug 12th 2008, 14:51

Attn.Jos.Caruana.
You are one of those 5% who are burying their heads in the sand and hoping for a miracle,
that is the development of Africa. You have to wait some time and by that time Malta would have been taken over by the Africans. Your reasoning is that we should maintain the status quo as Lampedusa, Greece and Spain have the same problem. Of course you fail to realize that these countries are a thousand times the size of tiny Malta and what happens to them in 20 years would only take one year to cripple us.

By the way, leave politics out of this as this is a matter of utmost national interest, but if you want to know I am a diehard PN , not that it makes any difference - what's bad for me is bad for you and at least for once, you should not see red or blue. Realize that something must be done and since we have a democratically elected parliament, it is their full responsibility
to tackle the problem. I hope at least on this we agree.

Ivan Attard

Aug 12th 2008, 13:58

@Joseph Caruana
Ok Joe. Well said. We shall therefore do nothing and wait for the hordes from Africa to overtake our island .......until the world sees to the development of Africa. Very ingenious proposal. You are sounding like ABC now - and that smells bad. Go on Gonzi, you are really following Caruana's suggestion to the letter - fret not 'cos other countries have the same problem as ours!

John Spiteri

Aug 12th 2008, 13:02

@F.Camilleri
Thank you Sir, this is what most people think and are saying, but our politicians seem to have a different attitude to this big problem, what surprise me the Opposition Party is saying nothing about it.
Also last night these latest migrants, where 170 miles south of Malta and by this morning they where 39 miles !!!!!

Joseph Caruana

Aug 12th 2008, 12:52

@ M Muscat, Louise Vella

Malta is not the only country seeing a massive increase in the influx of illegal immigrants this year, and in fact has seen far smaller increases than other countries.

Landings in Lampedusa were up by 300%, those in Greece up by 150%, Spain +100% and the list goes on. Ours are far below that.

So before repeating your usual lame political arguments about who's to blame for this increased influx, you should spare a few minutes to get out of the bubble that you're living in.

This is a problem that all mediterranean countries are facing and the only permanent solution to the problem is the development of Africa.

Farren Grixti

Aug 12th 2008, 12:38

@F. Camilleri
Very well put!!!

M.Muscat

Aug 12th 2008, 12:08

It is now obvious that at least 95% of the Maltese are on edge over this situation. Yet government ignores everyone and pretends that all is well. To provoke us a Minister declares that we should be expecting over 2000 imigrants by the end of summer and contingency plans are in place. Sheer irresponsibility and such minister should be hiding as he has no idea of how to tackle the problem.

There is no end to this story and it's just impossible for us to solve.
Where is big mouthed Europe.
Where are our braging MEP's who promised heaven on earth with Frontex?
Where is our government and opposition?

Guess what - they are nowhere to be seen and will only heed our comments by election time.
By then it will be too late and hope this time we won't forget it. We notice that the mass influx of these imigrants is no longer a matter of news value, parliament is muted, the church speechless, unions tongue tied, charlatans who are blind to the consequencies hiding, meanwhile Malta sinking and we paying for all this mess. When are we coming to our senses. How longer we ask.

Kenneth Galea

Aug 12th 2008, 12:03

I lost any hope whatsoever that this situation is ever going to be resolved. This batch of illegal immigrants were clearly in Libyan waters but then again Malta was forced to rescue them. Another batch and the burden on the Maltese tax payers gets harder and harder each day.

Where are the 'fathers to be' of these unborn babies? It clearly shows what mentality these illegal pregnant migrants have. They think that by giving birth in a EU country they are going to qulify for automatic citizenship. I hope that illegal pregnant migrants are NOT given a place in one of the maternity wards at Mater Dei. This could result in turning away the Maltese taxpayers or EU citizens because the maternity wards hit bursting point.

J Farrugia

Aug 12th 2008, 11:41

Wake up mr government. Do something about this national problem. Are you holidaying while malta burns? wake up ministers. do your duty towards Malta and the Maltese. get out of the Dublin Agreement.

F. Camilleri

Aug 12th 2008, 11:16

Dr. Gonzi, IT IS TIME TO ACT TO STOP this ACTIVE INVASION.
Where is the PEACE OF MIND you always guaranteed?

I AM NOW CONVINVED THAT your slogan before the election: ‘Fejn huma z-zghazagh’ was simply a call for their vote rather than genuine concern for their RIGHTFUL SECURE FUTURE.

The same goes to Dr. Muscat and ALL our MEPs.
NOW WE HAVE HAD MORE THEN ENOUGH.
Most of you are a LIABILITY rather than an ASSET to our country showing INCOMPETENCE AND ARROGANCE.

Your duty DEMANDS action in PROTECTING OUR ISLAND AND ITS PEOPLE.
You are ALL SHUNNING away from it.

WE are being BETRAYED by:
i. those whom we elected to defend us,
ii. the EU.

WE ARE BETRAYED through the 'self appointed do-gooders’ who argue FOR rather than AGAINST ILLEGAL immigration. These may be:
i. TOO YOUNG to understand the consequences of their actions,
ii. INDOCTRINATED,
iii. POLITICALLY MOTIVATED.

I HAVE NO HIDDEN AGENDAS.
My comments ARE NOT POLITICALLY MOTIVATED.
GENUINE CONCERN for my country and our children/adolescents prompts them.

The responsibility slants heavily on Dr. Gonzi from whom NO WORDS OF ASSURANCE are forthcoming.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS A CRIME AND A THREAT TO OUR COUNTRY.

Ben Markham

Aug 12th 2008, 10:55

The government is not reading these comments. Writing to the papers will get you no where. Get your voices heard by writing directly to government officials and by peaceful public demonstration. Also, get them live on tv to answer questions from the public, a studio audience. They feel safe and out of touch, sitting in chauffeur driven limousines with armed police guarding their offices.

John cassar

Aug 12th 2008, 10:08

Can the government inform the Maltese population how many illegals can be accepted considering that their duty is to the local inhabitants firstly? At what point will the government publicly state that it has lost control? Can the government state publicly how much they receive per head for each rescue? It seems that the Maltese national is insignificant if one is frightened of being over-run by another race! The elected officials are hiding and don't want to face the music!!!

a.cassar

Aug 12th 2008, 09:58

If their intention was to reach mainland Europe why don't we supply them with whatever they need including a new boat ( one of the several boats currently in the pssession of the AFM) and see them on their way. We would not be going against any law I suppose and we would be respecting their wish to go to Europe.

Mark Galea

Aug 12th 2008, 09:54

I really feel sorry for these people, although this can't go on and on. Also, I fail to see the responsibility of a woman 'about to give birth' to board a dinghy and cross the sea. If she really cared for her own offspring, this would be the last thing a woman in her right senses would do. Somehow, I think our generosity is being abused.

I. M. Dingli

Aug 12th 2008, 09:20

This is the same boat which up till yesterday was at 170 miles south of Malta. It seems we are widening the spectrum all of a sudden!!

louise vella

Aug 12th 2008, 08:23

The present situation is very worrying indeed even for the do-gooders. Mr Leone Ganado, chairman of the Church's Justice and Peace Commission wrote in Il-Gens (August 2): "One has to weigh the problem of accomodation. I ask how can the country manage to give efficient and human accomodation in view of this strong influx?"
Now that Gonzi and Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici have opened up the floodgates to a limitless number of illegal immigrants, they will be looking to accomodate them in some old school or other government building.
Local Councils had better keep a watchful eye.

Shaun Camilleri

Aug 12th 2008, 08:12

Here we go again!!!! This is starting to feel like cooking lessons rather than news!!

ALISON

Aug 12th 2008, 08:09

We are getting too much of these immigrants now. For me summer is almost associated with them....a never ending inflow. This is a big problem for us..we're so small and they're always arriving. I wonder why the maltese government has slept over this situation. But as usual, we start worrying and taking actions when something bad happens here...basically when it's too late. Hope this thing will never happen to our dear island. If we have a look at other countries and analyse what these illegal immigrants did, we'll be all ashamed of our relaxness on the matter.

Joe Galea

Aug 12th 2008, 07:48

... and the invasion goes on and on!!