Tuesday, 26th August 2008 - 20:21CET
Migrants stow away on Lifecycle truck
Eight migrants who stowed away on a Lifecycle truck on its way from Morocco to Malta were discovered by Moroccan police during an inspection before the Lifecycle group was due to board a ferry to Spain this evening, a spokesman for the group confirmed.
Karen Zammit explained that following the end of the HSBC Lifecycle challenge yesterday, the support team started its journey back to Malta on three campers and a closed truck carrying equipment.
She said the three campers were allowed through by the border police without problem, but the team was shocked when the police found the eight migrants hidden away in the truck. The migrants tried to run away but were quickly captured by the police.
“The drivers were very shocked. The migrants must have boarded the truck when they stopped for some refreshment at a petrol station”, Ms Zammit said. It was only when the migrants were discovered that the driver noticed that the back door of the truck had been broken.
She said the Moroccan police briefly took away the passports of Audrick Plum and Mark Zammit, who were driving the truck.She said, however, that the police were courteous.
“The situation was resolved thanks to the immense help of Olaf Terribile, the director of protocol at the Malta Foreign Ministry” Ms Zammit said.
The team is now expected to board the ferry for Spain tonight.
The Lifecycle team cycled all the away from Lourdes to Casablanca to raise funds for the Renal Unit at Mater Dei Hospital.
The convoy is due back in Malta on Sunday.
The drivers and assistants on the truck and campers are Audrick Plum, Mark Zammit, Lawrence Bellizi, Fr Pierre Grech Marguerat, James Cutajar and Mario Scerri.
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Malta the refugee camp (dump) of europe - the place to be :)
Well done to the all lifecycle team, you've done a great job once again this year.
We want people like these in our country, not illegal immigrants.
Pierre Grech Marguerat is unlikely to respond to wild accusations (or even mild accusations), so I'll butt in here and do so myself unprompted by the man himself.
Pierre Grech Marguerat is a renal patient who featured in a newspaper article a few months back. That means he has first hand experience of the benefits that the Life Cycle project brings to people who do not have the advantages the rest of us take for granted. That alone would account for his active involvement in this expedition. Is that enough for the nay sayers? Apparently it isn't. They imply that this was simply a covert operation to smuggle immigrants into Malta. At best, the suggestion is ludicrous and mean spirited. What I really think of the suggestion cannot be published, unlike, it seems, the nasty accusations that are made without any consideration of their consequences
I only asked you to clarify - never put words in your mouth.
Still, I cannot help but notice, in your answer to Owen Sant Angelo, your fascination with migrant advocate Fr Pierre being chosen as the spiritual director of the LifeCycle event and its chance association with these migrants.
You ask why Fr Pierre? But actually, why not?
You should be speaking up for the rights of refugees like Fr.Grech Marguerat, (and as I humbly try to do) instead of imagining things.
BTW I found no information on the site that you suggested to satisfy my curiosity about your choice of spiritual guide. The Times found it pertinent to mention his name in an article about 'migrants' so it was only natural for me to become curious, seeing that he is at the forefront, rightly so I must add, in the battle for the protection of refugees in Malta.
You said:
"I admire members of the clergy like Fr. Mark Montebello who works with prisoners and other outcasts and Fr. Pierre Grech Marguerat who is director of the Centre for Faith and Justice and the Jesuit Refugee Service. This because they are brave enough to help those who we other Christians in our infinite charity choose to (at best) ignoreHaving said this I notice in the above article that Fr. Pierre Grech Marguerat was with the Life Cycle Team. I think it is pertinent to ask what his role there is or was. "
What are you insinuating? Are you trying to imply that Fr. Pierre was somehow involved in helping these stowaways in any way? That is a serious allegation that needs urgent clarification on your part.
You see renal patients do not riot and burn down the renal unit if they are not happy with the service.
It is the illegal immigrant budget that seems to be infinite.
You should visit http://www.lifecyclechallenge.com for answers to all your questions.
Fr. Pierre is an able volunteer, spiritual guide to cyclists and backup team and brings invaluable contacts necessary in such a logistically challenging event. With regards to why we collect money for the Renal Unit, the same question can of course be asked of all charities and NGO's. The budget for health care is finite and renal unit can of course only be given part of the funds which are never enough when treatment is so enormously expensive.
Also year in year out I ask myself why we have to collect charity for renal unit when the government should be paying for this.
I am in no doubt as to the genuiness of your concern towards these people. However, it is not desperation which forces these people to try to get to Europe. Morocco is a stable country full of opportunities for those willing to take them.
The opportunity to "make a killing" is too tempting for some. Let me give an example. Drug trafficking is a capital offence in many countries, so is rape and corruption. Yet people still do it. Because they know that they stand a good chance of getting away with it and not because their life depends on it.
Misguided pity and charity will be our downfall.
In Malta the opposite is true, fishing boats bring in illegal immigrants against the express orders of the AFM and they are hailed as heroes.
If they were paraglading here, Frontex will be there to escort them over and welcome them with a cushion.
How disgusting!
SHHhhhhhhhh, para-gliding, don't be giving them more idea's...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)