Thursday, 28th August 2008
Migrants claim to have lost 70 at sea
Eight migrants brought ashore yesterday afternoon claimed to have lost around another 70 to the sea, the police said.
An armed forces Protector class patrol boat, in an operation some 40 miles off the coast, received the migrants from a fishing boat, Madonna Di Pompei, which had earlier rescued them from a dinghy that was taking in water.
Once onboard, the AFM confirmed that all the migrants were male and later transferred them to another patrol boat closer to shore, handing them over to the Immigration Police at the Maritime Squadron's base in Haywharf.
Initial reports given to the Madonna Di Pompei and the AFM by the eight migrants indicated that they were the sole survivors from a larger group of 18. However, sources said that when they were landed at Haywharf by the AFM, the migrants claimed that their group was originally made up of about 78.
Observers commenting on this year's illegal migration flows around Malta said this claim is more plausible since statistics this summer show that there have been fewer arrivals from small boats capable of taking up to 28 persons but more frequent detection and recoveries of large dinghies carrying between 77 and 95 migrants.
The AFM said that an Air Wing islander aircraft search came up with no survivors but a German helicopter patrol reported three dead bodies about 56 miles south of Malta.
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Comments
There are towns and cities which are no longer "english" due to the fact they have been overrun with foreigners.
If they all contribute to society then all would be well and good,but most are content to live off welfare and have their needs paid for them by the state.
I know, i spent 26 years there and watched it spread over the years.
@ Daphne
Having read many articles on these pages and knowing that you write articles in the Times newspaper i presumed you were an intelligent lady.
Reading some of your replies on here however has changed my mind.
GROW UP WOMAN!!!! Why do you constantly belittle people(or try to) and knock their intelligence? Are you better than everyone else?
Well let me tell you....no you are not.
Reply to comments you wish but be civil.It's as if you want people to hate you.
quote"They lack the ability to make that imaginative leap, usually due to average intelligence and an inadequate education."
Does this mean that you are intolerant to these so called people you mentioned in your quote?
And wouldn't you say that the word you used "empathise" doesn't count in your case?
Coming down 2 steps from your high altar would go a long way to prove your intelligence and higher education.
But how arrogant can you get???????
Do you get a kick out of getting people to hate you????
I hope you are not suggesting that only people of YOUR LEVEL of intelligence have a right to voice their opinion.
Why, just why do you always barge in with your 'high ground' arrogant attitude of 'trying' to belittle anyone who you do not disagree with (and believe me there are quite a lot). So maybe you are the ILLUMINATED one here on these Islands. Maybe you should try go flaunt yourself and your intelligence on the Sudanese at Marsa Tent City and analyze the results.
Why don't you invite some of them to your Villa in Bidnija so you make them forget the misery
days in Sudan or other places they come from? That will be a nice example of charity from
you!
'Having a Dream and Hanging on to it' does not absolve you from the ILLEGAL act of entering another country - illegally! I too have a dream. But if I want to pursue it by hook or by crook I need to make sure I do not break any rules of civil legality. And if these people run away from persecution (as you quite wrongly presume all of them do) why not settle in the first, second, third or fourth country they traverse on their way out. Many of the nations on the way including Libya do not torture and persecute these migrants but also employ them. Therefore much of what you and other do-gooders say has no, I repeat no weight whatsoever.
Perhaps a year of misery living in Bradford,Birmingham or London is what you need to see why so many are opposed to this multicultural madness.
Claudine Cassar, it is not what I say ... it is what they say. Clearly you are the type that follows the news very closely, but many times even the news is manipulated so don't be so gulible.
I have had the opportunity to "socialise" with a couple of migrants since they are increasingly forming part of the maltese work force and they themselves say that they spend at least a few years in habitable conditions working and saving money ($2000 per head) to give to human trafficers to enable them to cross the med.
Please spare us the bleeding heart sermon! While any loss of life is always deeply regretted, these individuals know full well the risks they face when they collude with human traffickers. The AFM has increasingly been 'rescuing'' more and more of these individuals. It is becoming clear that this is a change in tactics by illegal human traffickers. It is a well known fact that those already here are in contact with their brethren on the other side. In fact, it has also been reported in this newspaper that illegal immigrants here in Malta have instigated AFM rescue missions presumably upon being contacted by others out at sea. Proof positive that these are highly co-ordinated illegal immigrant crossings. In any report related to this story, the UNHCR has neither expressed its concerns and asked the Libyan authorities to prevent such crossings, nor did it ask for search and rescue co-operation from them. Releasing these criminals would only encourage more of the same!
Immigrazione: arrestati cinque scafisti ad Agrigento. 27 agosto 10:54. AGRIGENTO - La squadra mobile di Agrigento ha arrestato cinque presunti scafisti, tra cui un nigeriano, due tunisini e un ganese. Sono accusati dello sbarco del 12 agosto a Lampedusa di 83 extracomunitari. Fermato anche un ganese di 15 anni che avrebbe guidato la barca con 70 immigrati a bordo il 20 agosto. Sono in tutto 100 dall'inizio dell'anno gli arresti eseguiti dalla polizia di presunti scafisti e di immigrati che tornano irregolarmente in Italia. (Agr)
What are our police doing?
There is a lot of misinformation from all sides on the issue of immigration which, at the end of the day, is doing nothing but confusing and misleading the core issue which is of how Africa has been exploited for centuries and now Europe is reaping what it has sown.
Unfortunately, we are caught in this whole mess and whatever we say or do, Europe is more than happy with the current situation.
All this, of course, should not obfuscate in any way the seriousness of the tragedies which are so often occurring in the sea around us but should, in my opinion, be cause of shame on whoever is failing to stem this illegal and dangerous flow of unchecked immigration.
And not only that: you really make me feel good with myself. For, come on, how many 'liberals' out there in the world are also described as 'do-gooders'?
And once again, since when was doing good something to be ashamed of?
I also agree with Mr.Graham Holme, I lived in England for a long time and seen what has happened over their due to mixture of cultures or shall we say Asian/Black ghettos where no white person dare to enter after dark and that includes the police in some instances, surely d we must not let this to happen here. I know a few British people who has been here on holidays and seen how we already started getting our own ghettos (you don't have to go far, look at Valletta bus terminus, Marsa, etc...) and a lot of them may never come again due to this crisis.
Can anyone tell me if ever have the authorities caught any human trafficers?
Yes the Maltese are lucky. We have options to improve and better our lives. These people do not. So yes, it is totally understandable that they will stop at nothing to try and improve their lot. You should thank your lucky stars that you are not in the same position.
We cannot stop the influx of illegal immigrants. It is no use to tell them to go back to Libya Libya is reluctant to stop them and has no interest. The EU is not really concrened with the problem because a lot of EU members of parliament see immigration as a profitable and important source for providing cheap workmanship. The only EU members of parliament I know stressing about the problem are David Casa and Simon Busuttil. But to no avail. All the rest Maltese EU MP's are more intersted in the car registration tax issue and how to lower the price of mobile phones.
The goverment is not even supporting his own EU MP's in dealing with the problems. I think we should hold serious talks with Mr. Gaddafi. After all immigrants are leaving from his country. But who cares. My advice is, learn to leave with it because this problem is here to stay if the EU, Libya and the goverment continue with this sort of attitude
Everyone pursues dreams and everyone wishes for a better life but you cannot destabilize a country’s economy in the process without giving anything back.
In their pursuit for happiness the only persons who gain out of their ordeal are the traffickers and nobody else, not even these immigrants. These immigrants end up in the detention centres and they are not happy to be there but still they keep on coming. After spending sometime in these detention centres they are transferred to the open centres and keep on living on our subsidies. They work illegally, and again who’s to gain out of it….. the contractors who employ them.
Tax payers keep on forking out money and the story goes on and on… there are few of these immigrants who actually put some cash back into our economy by paying taxes and that bothers me a lot since they are foreigners in my country and I have to sustain them indirectly.
What the government should instruct AFM to do is to keep an eye for mother ships and to arrest the captains who definitely have some connection with the criminals who are organizing these dangerous trips.
Although some of them have escaped persecution in their countries the migrants are coming from libya ultimately which means they are out of danger. moreover, many of them are not escaping persecution but merely seeking a better life in europe, a move maltese did and still do LEGALLY. Being unemployed does not give them the right to enter other countries illegally.
I am no expert on the matter, but in my opinion during the years of suffering they undergo, these people hang on to a dream. A dream of living in a place where people are treated with respect, where life has value, and where human beings have rights. And for them, such a dream is to be found in countries which value human rights, such as European countries, or the US. That is why they move on from Libya - to build a life with dignity.
What C. Borg meant is that they are not held at gun point whilst they are in Libya. I travel to Tripoli on a regular basis and i can assure you that most of these persons work within Tripoli for years some times in order to have enough money for the trip. We used to employ an Iraqi refugee here in Malta and after he's been here for about 5 to 6 years he tells me that life in Libya is far better since Malta is too expensive to live in. Albeit he's still here!!
These illegals are not forced to take the trip, you say. They are not held at gunpoint, you say. My only conclusion is that you must be one of those people who never follow the news, and who do not follow international affairs! So according to you women escaping gang rape in Sudan, or young men escaping persecution by rebels in the Congo, or families escaping famine in Ethiopia, are not forced to flee their countries to save their lives! Of course they are aware of the dangers - it's just that what they are running away from is even worse than a probable death at sea!
Like all the other liberal do-gooders you live in a dream world.
'Host them for a few months?' Once the illegals land here, the vast majority stays here for good, so the cumulative numbers keep growing. There must be over ten thousand illegals here by now.
Ms Louise Vella is right. The only way to limit this humanitarian tragedy -- and to save our own small nation from being swamped -- is to intercept the illegals outside Libyan waters, resupply them if necessary -- AND TURN THEM BACK.
Liberal sentimentalism makes Malta more attractive, encourages more suicide trips and results in MORE DEATHS.
But then when have liberal do-gooders ever been logical?
Nobody enjoys hearing of people drowning.
One can assume that these immigrants are not aware of the danger they are facing. They are probably blinded by the promise of social benefits and free world, and statistics of drowning people are not presented to them before they leave libya.
I fail to see why you took Louise vella to task for suggesting that the migrants should be turned back before they commit themselves to the fury of the sea (by the way il-bahar ZAQQU ratba u RASU iebsa!) If these migrants had been intercepted outside libya's territorial waters and made to turn back they would still be alive today. Every single one of them. At least Louise and i have tried to make a suggestion as to how this crisis can be resolved. What have you done except try to pull at our heart strings and make us feel gulty? Of course we would have preffered that the migrants had made it to malta when the other option is death by drowning. But I would also have preffered them to make it to Italy or any other country rather than Malta. There. that's another plausible uggestion!
No one is more against illegal immigration than myself,as I have witnessed first hand how it has destroyed the UK,but the death of these boat people is a very tragic incident.No one in their right mind would wish this on anyone.
Maltas future is at stake.Your tourist industry will collapse,therefore your main source of income will be lost forever.
One cannot, however, ignore the fact that when tragedies like this occur, all our concerns may seem irrelevant and, though justified, even petty.
Whilst praying that this senseless and undignified loss of life stops once and for all, I can only wish that one day, whoever is allowing all this happen be brought to account of his actions - be these actions devoted to the promotion of these dangerous trips or through the passive attitude allowing these practices to continue.
This is is a very bad day for humanity - so many lives lost at sea.
I would have preferred if they had reached our shores, than drowning! At least, they would have been saved. Ms Vella, can you say that, as I did?????
We, whom you like to call 'do-gooders', all realise that Malta cannot take in all the immigrants who invade our shores - every effort must be made to ensure that these go back or move on.
However, in the light of the ferocity and ugliness of the sea (il-bahar rasu ratba ...) I would prefer to host them for a few months here!
Do you think there's any Minister or Prime Minister who is happy with the situation?
What would an alternative government have done about it?
Shame on you for showing your face today!
Maybe its because the next general election is still far away?... Or what?!
SHAME!!!