The popular quick fix to immigration is "send them back". Kurt Sansone tries to differentiate between political rhetoric and reality.
The popular solution to the immigration phenomenon is often to send them back from where they came but, according to UNHCR representative Neil Falzon, this philosophy goes against Malta's international obligations.
Indeed, it is not the government's declared policy and never has been.
With the unusual arrival of hundreds of immigrants in the winter months, politicians have started to ruffle their feathers with Labour leader Joseph Muscat calling for an urgent debate in Parliament last week and Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando raising the alarm bells on Monday.
Dr Muscat demanded a parliamentary debate on the immigration issue without proposing any concrete solutions. These will be published in the days to come, Dr Muscat promised on Sunday.
Meanwhile, writing in The Times, Dr Pullicino Orlando insisted immigrants should be put on a boat and sent back to Libya. "I suggest that they should be treated in the same way we would treat any other visitor who does not have the proper documentation and is trying to gain entry into our islands illegally. Send them back," Dr Pullicino wrote.
He even ventured a solution: "When the weather is fair and at the earliest opportunity, they should be towed back into international waters in the direction they came from".
Dr Pullicino Orlando's solution goes against the government's established policy, which has always maintained that asylum seekers cannot be sent back.
Asked whether Dr Pullicino Orlando's suggestion tallied with party policy, PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier insisted Malta "should honour all its international and European obligations".
Dr Borg Olivier reiterated his party's belief that Malta should continue to work for "practical and concrete solidarity" from its EU partners and from the international community.
Even if the maverick MP's position on illegal immigration jars with party and government policy it is reflective of public sentiment.
A cursory look at comments posted on timesofmalta.com indicates a public mood that is increasingly becoming uneasy about the situation. Illegal immigration is not just a concern but an issue people are becoming very passionate about.
Another telling sign is the Most Commented section on timesofmalta.com: of the 10 top stories attracting most online comments, four deal with illegal immigration and its ramifications.
Sending back the immigrants is one of the solutions proposed by many but Dr Falzon insisted there were no quick fixes or simple solutions to the phenomenon.
"Every person has a right to ask for protection status according to international conventions that Malta is party to, so I cannot see a situation where illegal immigrants that arrive here are immediately deported," Dr Falzon said.
Even Italy's Home Affairs Minister, Roberto Maroni had to retract statements to this effect earlier this year because the only people that can be repatriated immediately are those with which the country has a functional repatriation agreement.
Since Malta is a signatory to the UN Convention on refugees, asylum seekers who have a right to be granted refugee status or temporary humanitarian protection are entitled to be processed in Malta and not sent back to where they came from.
Dr Falzon said at least 60 per cent of asylum seekers who landed in Malta were granted some form of protection status. "This figure proves that the majority of those who arrive cannot be sent back without having their application processed," he explained.
There is an additional problem with the idea of returning asylum seekers to Libya, which, in Malta's case, is more often than not their country of departure.
The North African state is not a signatory to the UN convention and so there is no guarantee that somebody entitled to some form of protection will not be sent back to his country of origin.
"If we send a Somali who, by law, is entitled to humanitarian protection status, back to Libya, from where he left, that person may end up back in Somalia. In this way, Malta will be indirectly responsible for sending that person back to his war-torn country," Dr Falzon explained.
He insisted that, on a political level, the government had always recognised that sending asylum seekers back to Libya was not an option in the prevailing circumstances.
The latest immigrant arrivals, 604 in February alone, have created a sense of alarm. A Eurobarometer survey showed that illegal immigration is a top concern for the Maltese.
The situation is not looking rosy and it can only be hoped that when Parliament meets to discuss the issue it will not turn out to be a simplistic analysis of what is happening and an even more simplistic attempt at proposing impractical solutions.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com
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