AN to organise anti-immigration pact march

Azzjoni Nazzjonali will be holding a march in Valletta on Thursday to protest against the EU's Immigration Pact, saying "racists" should stay away.

Leader Josie Muscat said the peaceful protest was being held to coincide with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's signing of the pact. It was intended to show that AN, unlike the government, was four-square with the Maltese public on the issue of immigration.

He called on the country to unite behind AN just as their forefathers had united against the invasion of the Turks. Dr Muscat praised former Prime Ministers Ġorġ Borg Olivier and Dom Mintoff for having stood up for the country at crucial moments in history. He criticised the present government for "chickening out".

The pact, he added, was an even bigger "joke" than Frontex and it will position the Maltese as beggars because other EU countries will only help with burden-sharing on a voluntary basis and only with those migrants that would have received refugee status.

Although the term "racism" had often been used in an arrogant and loose way since the problem of immigration had begun, AN too did not want to see xenophobic banners at the protest because its intention is to have a serious debate on the matter.

Dr Muscat hit out strongly at both the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party, criticising them for sweeping the problems under the rug, especially before the last general election. The truth was now emerging and even the Prime Minister was speaking of an "invasion", he added.

Dr Muscat spoke about what he termed as the MLP's "U-turn" when Labour leader Joseph Muscat said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi should not sign the pact and then Labour MP George Vella, speaking in Parliament last week, said the MLP was four-square with the government on immigration.

The MLP has since clarified its position saying that while it was behind the government on immigration, an issue of national importance, it still had reservations on some elements of the pact.

Asked what he would have done if he were Prime Minister, Dr Muscat said he would have taken Malta out of the Dublin II Regulation, which makes it Malta's responsibility to process applications for asylum filed by immigrants landing on its shores.

He said immigrants arriving on Maltese shores should be allowed to stay for one month, given food, shelter, medicine and everything else they required but should then be sent to other European countries or repatriated. Failing this, AN proposed that they be put on seaworthy and provisioned boats for them to continue their journey to wherever they wanted to go but would not be allowed to remain in Malta.

"The only thing Frontex has done is save us diesel. All it can do is tell immigrants they will be held in detention and then it must bring them to our shores," Dr Muscat said. Frontex had actually attracted more immigrants to Malta because the journey had become safer.

He warned that immigration will become a huge disaster for Malta in the coming decades and will result in the deterioration of culture, tradition and religion. The problem could become much more serious if the families of refugees were allowed to join them in Malta.

Dr Muscat said Malta had never colonised countries in Africa and, therefore, did not have the responsibility that some of the other EU members had.