Ranier Fsadni
The pariah strategy for immigration
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (February 23) has urged us all "to face up" to the problem of immigration. But how much does his proposal face up to the facts?
It involves, first, recognising no right of asylum, unless an immigrant comes directly from his or her country. Otherwise, the argument that they have escaped persecution or terror "does not hold water".
This means Malta would have to deny a crucial distinction of international law and embraced by all EU member states.
Denying this distinction would mean that Malta suspends its international obligations at law. It would also give our EU partners an important loophole. Recently, the principle of burden sharing was recognised (although not in a way that committed them in detail) with respect to asylum seekers. If we do not recognise any, who will there be for other member states to take?
Of course, that is not the line the EU will take. It will, at the very least, suspend our membership, if not expel us. Because the second part of Dr Pullicino Orlando's proposal is to tow all undocumented immigrants back to international waters, in the direction whence they came, "when the weather is fair".
Call it the pariah strategy: That is how the international community will treat us. It is how it is treating Thailand, the only state that tows immigrants back into international waters.
Not even Australia's right-wing populist, John Howard, attempted it. The closest he got was refusing to accept a ship into Australia's harbours. But what a difference: He was not towing people out and it was a ship not a fragile boat.
The idea behind the proposal may be that once we get rid of the immigrants we can get on with creating wealth and peace of mind. But there is a fatal flaw. Suspension from the EU will run our reputation through the gutter, seriously damaging tourism and jeopardising foreign investment. The cure will be far worse than the problem.
And we will deserve it. Although Dr Pullicino Orlando makes towing immigrants out to sea sound so simple, commonsensical and even possible to do kindly ("every effort must be taken to ensure their safety"), it can only be done callously and with complete disrespect for human life.
Take them out "when the weather is fair"? The weather variable window is far too wide. It would have to be fair for several days; the immigrants would need to be sure to stay on course and not stray into a different weather zone. Hundreds of the immigrants that Thailand has towed out have lost their lives.
In what boats do we put the immigrants? They are arriving in unsafe boats that can carry 200. Do we place them in a fleet of smaller boats that take up to 28? Applied to the 600 recent arrivals, that would involve escorting over 20 boats out to sea.
What if they come back into Maltese waters? Or, if they go back towards Libya (rather than heading for Italy, which would have serious conflict with us as a result), what happens if, say, Libya tows them out again? Do we play ping pong with hundreds of lives?
But that is the kind of detailed implementation that would be necessary. It is why, we would become pariahs. It is why to make such a proposal is not to face up to the facts but to avoid them.
Indeed, one of the most puzzling aspects of his article is its estrangement from many facts. Dr Pullicino Orlando wagers that the UK, France and Germany would each declare a state of emergency (and presumably suspend their international obligations) if faced with a proportionate number of immigrants.
There is no need to speculate. Germany has been there already. In 1992, it had 440,000 requests for asylum (way above Malta's proportionate number) and no help from its European partners. No state of emergency was declared.
And for someone keen to face the facts, Dr Pullicino Orlando does a strange thing: He inflates the figures.
He blows up the numbers France and the UK would proportionately get, by some 30 per cent and, in counting the immigrants to Malta over a five-year period, he counts the arrivals and not the net number that is still here.
Up till a short while ago, he denounced talk "of suspending human rights considerations as a brazen attempt to score cheap political points by riding on the wave of popular concern". He was criticising Alfred Sant's proposal to suspend Malta's international obligations. What is so different about his?
Earlier, too, he used to warn how the issue had led to the creation of a right-wing party. His proposal today, however, is virtually identical to that party's.
In short, his attempt to save us from rising xenophobia sounds rather like the attempt by US generals to save Vietnamese villages from communism: to save the village, it was once notoriously declared, it was necessary to destroy it.
49 Comments
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Corinne Vella
Mar 2nd 2009, 23:52
Eric Soames: "There are laws to be observed if one wants to enter a new country and everybody will be happier once they are enforced again."
What you're suggesting is the breaking of laws, not their enforcement. Here's another article you didn't read: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090302/local/sending-migrants-back-is-not-an-option/
Eric Soames
Mar 1st 2009, 13:32
Corinne Vella: There you go again. You brought up the tax issue originally. It's almost irrelevant really. I live in a country with a 'turn 'em back at the border' policy, yet is still riddled with illegals. I agree with the policy. Bad from your sentimental 'do-gooder' point of view maybe but essential for the survival of a nation, culturally and economically. I am a very empathetic person; anti death-penalty, anti war, pro gay rights etc but I believe that these people need to be assisted at home, theirs not mine. There are laws to be observed if one wants to enter a new country and everybody will be happier once they are enforced again.
Joe Xuereb
Mar 1st 2009, 10:53
Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. I would add another. Wilful ignorance. They are called deadly because they consume the perpetrators. Evil does indeed beget evil - ricochet a` la mode.
Corinne Vella
Mar 1st 2009, 09:56
Eric Soames: I didn't think you'd see the equation, and that illustrates my point perfectly. The tow them back brigade know what they want but don't know what they're saying. Immigration is not a European issue nor is it "maybe greater". It IS greater – you're possibly the only member of the 'tow them back' brigade to have noticed that. Disappointingly, you frame it only in terms of your taxes. Let's put it this way. Ranier Fsadni's explanation has washed right over your head.
No. You didn't mention shooting and starving, but those rallying calls have been heard on your side of the fence and there you are, standing alongside repeating your 'tow them back' mantra and applauding furiously every time someone says something similar. It's becoming difficult to tell you all apart. Even Sarah Palin would be embarrassed in your place.
Eric Soames
Feb 28th 2009, 21:08
Corinne: I guess we should be on first name terms by now. I don't see how you equate the Titanic to pronouncements. Bit of the Sarah Palins there, yes? Grabbing a word of a discussion and using it in another sentence feeling that to have suitably addressed the issue. Like I said you don't know where I pay, or have paid, taxes. It's not just an Island issue, it's European issue - maybe greater. I never mentioned shooting or starving, as you know, but, and I hate to parrot a famous phrase; 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn'.
Corinne Vella
Feb 28th 2009, 19:59
Eric Soames: The Titanic is an apt description of the uninformed pronouncements made on immigration, including by people who claim it is a cost to them when they don't pay any tax money here. "Tow them back" is one example. It's marginally above "shoot them at sea" and "starve them into submission". Those are pronouncements that have attracted applause too. I don't admire them. Do you?
Eric Soames
Feb 28th 2009, 15:11
Corinne Vella: This is getting to be a bit of a strain. I don't usually keep returning to a post but you keep taking differing tacks and I enjoy a jestful verbal joust although you're ignoring my ripostes. I hear what you're saying but your philosophy seems to be to sit in the deckchair and let the Titanic right itself. The issue of taxation is a whole other can of worms but please don't presume to guess my feelings on the matter, I can assure you though, that where I pay taxes the taxman is being held to a whole new standard.
Corinne Vella
Feb 27th 2009, 22:06
Eric Soames: It might be difficult to accept that your personal interests and a country's interests do not coincide, especially when you feel strongly about a matter. Popular support for an idea doesn't automatically mean it is a good idea for the country as a whole. I take it you pay taxes here in Malta. I don't imagine you do that because you want to. Would you suggest that all taxation should be abolished simply because none of us enjoy paying tax?
Victor Zammit
Feb 27th 2009, 20:19
For decades, the European Union has been criticizing and lecturing Libya for its Human Rights records. Libya Co. Gadafi is simply testing EU values by sending Human that would like to find their rights in EU. JPO suggestion send wrong signals to EU and equally proving to Gaddafi that EU values are mere slogans, this is of course, unless both EU and JPO got a different definition for humans.
Eric Soames
Feb 27th 2009, 19:14
Corinne Vella: Sentiment? No. Hard nose attitude, maybe. '.. around one's own expectations'; er, no. Family, self and country first. Then one prioritises. 'There are consequences ..'; Of course there are. Including to foolishly venturing on an illegal undertaking and forcing yourself as an uninvited guest. Do that at your peril not my cost. I've mentioned this before but even Mexico is turning back Cuban illegals (fellow Hispanics) on their way to attempting to get across the US border.
Corinne Vella
Feb 27th 2009, 18:40
Eric Soames: Of course you would stand by what you said. It is based on sentiment and speculation, and, yes, a belief that the world revolves around one's own expectations. Reason and logic, on the other hand, can only be disputed by contrary evidence and logic. Whatever you believe is immaterial. It cannot change the facts on the ground. There are consequences to the irrational cries of the 'tow them back' brigade. Ranier Fsadni has explained them. The 'we don't care' retort is insufficient proof to the contrary.
Eric Soames
Feb 27th 2009, 17:30
Corinne Vella: I'll stand by what I said, thank you. 'Tom Delay': Unfortunate choice of pseudonym. Here's a quote from the indicted Republican explaining his failure to enlist during Vietnam: "So many minority youths had volunteered…that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like myself."
Corinne Vella
Feb 27th 2009, 15:44
Joe Xuereb: You have already declared your interest in shallow discussion. It isn't necessary to prove it.
Joe Xuereb
Feb 27th 2009, 14:09
@ Victor Zammit. I am not sure I get what you mean by Libya and EU's southern borders. And then I thought, I wonder if Malta's apologists for this shambles can clamour for Libya (possibly itself sending a none-too-veiled [pun intended] a message) to join the EU. Then the shambles would overnight become legit. And with Libya's revenue from oil, all that would be needed would be a 'foot-path' linking North Africa>Malta>Sicily>Scylla and Carybdis>and up the boot> and thence, the world's their oyster. Malta would thus become a first port of call, the administration for entry - what administration, passports will be a historical, archived redundancy as would be Frontex and expenses incurred in maritime salvagefforts of folks in distress. And the tourists will be back, again to witness this wondrous historical rock rise again like the proverbial phoenix, And anyone with troubled conscience will start to sleep easy again. Of course these 'bridges' will take somewhat longer to build than overnight. But it is worth considering. A burning phoenix will clutch at any liquid. Even if it is blood-red.
Joe Xuereb
Feb 27th 2009, 13:50
@ Abel Abela. I love you man.
Corinne Vella
Feb 27th 2009, 12:59
Eric Soames: "The problem with the men and women in your sort of street is they think the world revolves around them. Ranier Fsadni 'sopinion piece has very clearly, and simply, explained why it doesn't. Perhaps you should read it again.
Joe Xuereb
Feb 27th 2009, 12:33
The number of mainly men who are in Malta illegally may well be more than Malta's security forces. Assuming that they are untrained(?) and recognising the force of peer pressure, 'mass hysteria (their's not ours although we are prone to this), sheer frustration and anger at the situation THEY HAVE LANDED THEMSELVES IN, all it takes is for some hot-head to throw a stone and injure a soldier/policeman, etc. The violence would spread like wildfire. And there will be casualties. What then? The burning of mattress is not a good omen. Some would even say symbolic. And it is happening regularly now. And may I add, Anyone even thinking that expelling them northwards woudl.......it would solve Malta's immediate problem for sure. But it also means whoever things this a solution does not have a handle on the phenomenon. One illegal entrant anywhere is one too many. Malta has its own home-grown criminals, to be caught, processed and sentenced (not holding my breath seeing that a serious child abuse case took seven years to come up, the felons punished).
Illegal immigrants, if illegal in country of origin, can be processed there. Local apologists can examine their own consciences. And their agenda.
Joe Xuereb
Feb 27th 2009, 12:08
cont./ Having no axe to grind with Mr. Orlando (very Furioso by now I imagine, and frustrated) I find not problem with accepting the fellow at face value. Now, seeing that over the weeks we have had a variety of apologists, messenger demonisers, knee-jerk reactors (never to be recommended, extreme nationalists masquerading as patriots, self-mocking individuals (experts in denial popularly known as 'heads in the sand'). Given all this, it would be too much to expect solutions, to much to ask. One gives up.
Now, assuming for one second that Mr. Furioso - bless!! - has no case, could you, or anyone else who cares, tell us how this situation will pan out. Given that the situation is not only at an impasse but deteriorating every time there is a new influx. Expelling a few to appease the people is a weak sob I'm afraid (see above) when the influx more than replenishes the stock. And let us make no mistake. Feeding and accommodating illegals is an issue. But some issues are unseen. I am thinking of the undermining of Malta's way of life, the villages, morale, quality of life. I expect some comments.
Joe Xuereb
Feb 27th 2009, 11:54
Fsadni. To me, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is just a name (I have been in London for near to fifty years and never voted in Malta. But I am still Maltese of course, with full, verifiable credentials, right down to near-perfect - as perfect as perfect can ever be - spoken and written Maltese. Experienced some angst over relinquishing Maltese passport but continued to dither. After all I had right of residence since day one. The issue was resolved when Malta was welcomed into the EU. Proplem solved. Two passports for the price of one. Hurray!! Yippeeeee!! Now, back to business in hand.
From where I am standing, Pullicino - whatever his agenda, it matters not given the dire straits we are in - wittingly or otherwise is telling us, or giving us to understand, that, given that the situation is at an impasse (meaning that, 35 or whatever illegal immigrants, 227 illegal immigrants, quick on their heels, in - this is not progress. Thanks to Jeffrey, just in case haven't a brain, this means that the situation is getting worse. And nothing is being done. cont./
Jacob Borg
Feb 26th 2009, 22:45
It's nice to see some media space being given to someone writing about the flip side of the coin. We seem to be forgetting that these are human being that we are talking about. I was unaware of the situation in Thailand,where dear JPO seems to have taken his idea from.
Perhaps we should tow him out on a boat and see how he copes,after all,one should lead by example.
C.ZARB
Feb 26th 2009, 20:38
If the EU doesn't want to understand us on this crucial problem then we should leave it and not viceversa. Lets face it guys. I voted for the EU membership because I believed in its concept. Stating that if being a EU member means keeping immigrants in Malta against there will and therefore jeopardising both our and their future then we are better out of it.
Chris Tanti
Feb 26th 2009, 20:03
So basically, Mr. Fsadni is telling us: Make a sacrifice for the sake of humanity, forget our island, throw 50 years of progress in the bin and let them come in.
He would be more credible if he first gives up his house to an immigrant family. Then maybe, maybe, we'll take him more seriously..
Seriously, we have to defend our little island and if this means, taking radical measures, we'll have to take them. Jews know well what it's like living without a home country - I really don't want to witness a Maltese diaspora in my lifetime!
Abel Abela
Feb 26th 2009, 19:05
***NEEDED: MALTA GOVERNMENT WEBSITE ON IRREGULAR MIGRATION***
This is a sincere appeal to the Maltese government to create and keep regularly updated a website dedicated to Malta's problem of irregular immigration, documenting the facts from the moment a boat is detected in Maltese waters, to the bureaucratic procedures linked to the grant of asylum and the attainment of refugee status . It should include info on detention centres, full statistics, a dossier of events, a panoramic view of Malta's ministries, departments, institutions, and numerous organizations involved in handling this growing problem, as well as a collection of the legal texts binding Malta under international law. It should include information on the contribution of Malta's armed forces, police, doctors, nurses and paramedics to cater to the needs of the irregular migrants, as well as a reliable financial account of national expenditure to cope with this challenge. It should also list reports filed by Maltese citizens with the police concerning irregular migrants, as well as any reports made by the latter.
We really need to know what we're talking about.
This is the basic right to information.
Victor Zammit
Feb 26th 2009, 18:50
@ T Mifsud
We need to act arbitrarily and if necessary unilaterally if the rest of Europe thinks that Malta is the dumping ground and not the sentry of Europe's southern border.
With same line of argument why do presume that Libya should be the guardians of EU borders?
@ malcolm seychell
The author talks reality while pressure groups like AN just are desperate to collect votes and using the immigrants as an convenient scaremongering tool hang all our evils and vices on. Additionally, may I ask why, lately the AN hardly talk about single parents?? A matter of Votes hux?
@ louise vella
I am really sorry for this unfortunate incidents happened with you and your friends’s daughter. I too, have many many stories and incidents that involved fellow Maltese.
Eric Soames
Feb 26th 2009, 18:35
The correspondent should realize that if the government was acting boldly, firmly and efficiently in processing these aliens there would be no need to talk about 'towing them back out to sea'. Tow them or organize shiploads of returns, just get it done. In a somewhat ironic twist, their claims imply that they are fleeing for their lives from Libya. I'm sure the good (rehabilitated) Colonel would object to having his country painted with such a brush. It's time for these pro invasion apologists to get in touch with the man/woman in the street!
Tom Delay
Feb 26th 2009, 18:07
Ranier - you dissapoint me - wasting time on some notion from a struggling politician.
Sandro Pace
Feb 26th 2009, 17:22
cont...
I am pitying Malta not being part of German territory. I dont wonder why they have curbed influx in their country.
What most are missing is that every country has the right to order on the border and no country would like to be seen punishing another country for taking drastic actions when matters come out of hand. It can backfire on them.
It would be as I will tell my neighbour that I will sanction him if he does not welcome every poor guy on the street. Or vice versa. Ridiculous.
They shall other help, or stay out of it.
L..Galea
Feb 26th 2009, 17:16
M. Mercieca
When it comes to an invasion all international obligations are suspended.
Sandro Pace
Feb 26th 2009, 17:15
Pariah indeed, look at how the German (EU members) tackles the problem:
From the MaltaToday 20 July 08
quotes
"Frontex patrols seize fuel and food to force migrants crossing the Mediterranean to return to their point of departure. ................
In the documentary, Colonel Francesco Saverio Manozzi can be heard explaining to the Italian refugee council how certain EU member states operate different tactics on the high seas when they encounter migrants.
German forces in particular operate on tough lines, the police chief admits.
Other countries use the term ‘diversion’, which means to force someone to go back home,” Manozzi says.
But even Frontex director Ilkka Laitenen does not deny the practice, saying each member state interprets the law as it sees fit when it comes to border control.
“If there are any means of how to turn those people who are entering illegally, to go back home, that will be done. The individual EU members interpret the law differently. I don’t say it is illegal. They just interpret it differently.”
"The way of doing this is to ensure a safe return back to the port of departure. To this end we go aboard the boats to confirm ...""
louise vella
Feb 26th 2009, 17:10
Ranier Fsadni, according to you how many illegal immigrants are we obliged to take by international law and international obligations at law?
100 000? 1000 000? How many?
Does the Maltese government not have also NATIONAL obligations to its own people?
Definitely illegal immigrants are not "skart" but neither are Maltese citizens in their own country. They and their views should not be ignored as the government has been doing.
Ranier Fsadni, would you care to have a referendum on illegal immigration? Or at least a public consultation process? Or an issue group?
Muscat.P
Feb 26th 2009, 17:10
R.Fsadni thinks like an academic, which means on paper ideas are feasible and very politically correct; in practice Kaput! Stop bullying the people of this small island in accepting illegal emigrants. When richer countries get rid of passports visas and working permits we will do the same; that is after they do it.
m.muscat
Feb 26th 2009, 17:03
According to Mr.Fsadni Malta is doomed to extinction for fear of "suspension of our EU membership or even expelled". We might even prejudice the farcical "voluntary burden sharing agreement" which we were made to believe would make miracles. But why should this be so in such a serious institution as the EU? If the EU fails to realize that Malta's case - being a tiny island marked as a spot on the world globe - is totally different from that of our EU Big Brothers, than we were led astray and signed international obligations which would be impossible for us to sustain.
Burden sharing must be OBLIGATORY and the EU must shake up those member countries who are taking us for a ride and who are blatantly backtracking from their "gentlemanly agreement" of burden sharing. I feel astounded how a man of your intelligence fails to make a distinction between the size of Malta, and the repercussions we will be soon facing, and the big EU countries which have no such problem and are shunning all responsibilities. However you look at it there is no light at the end of the tunnel and we should act fast.
Corinne Vella
Feb 26th 2009, 17:02
And when they're all towed back to where they came from - or left to drown on the way - what do we do about the home grown rapists, abusers, thieves, fondlers, flashers, ear biters, extortionists, pick pockets and sundry other criminals both petty and grand? An alarmist outlook is not conducive to reason.
Corinne Vella
Feb 26th 2009, 16:50
Malcolm Seychell: I am aware of those 10 proposals. They amount to a tiara, sash and bikini and while it's all very well to pose around in them, you're going to have to do something practical if you're going to save the world. Even beauty queens know that.
Incidentally, Malta is part of the EU against which you plan to use Malta's veto power. Are you planning to veto yourself?
Louis Gialanze
Feb 26th 2009, 15:51
Ranier Fsadni you are conveniently ignoring one very important and fundamental criteria.
It's called national security which overides any other consideration. We and we alone are responsable for our own defence and security of this island. These people are a security threat since their numbers by far exceed our own armed forces.
malcolm seychell
Feb 26th 2009, 15:36
@ Corinne Vella.
We gave our proposals unlike the PN which are doing nothing on illegal immigration.
We still have the VETO power thanks to the Irish people who voted no to the lisbon treaty.
We should use it on a daily basis, till the day we get what we want from the EU.
Joseph Cassar
Feb 26th 2009, 15:25
The consequences could be even worse for Malta from taking the type of actions being suggested. People seem to forget that as an island, we ourselves are dependent for our food (and almost everything else) on imports from other countries. Once out of the single market, buying from EU countries would become more expensive, and our inflation would rise again. Menawhile the immigrants would keep coming and we'd really have no help on the horizon.
Besides which, what JPO is suggesting is effectively state sanctioned murder. Jesus would not approve.
Edwin Mifsud
Feb 26th 2009, 15:15
@Antoine Vella
"......Maltese are xenophobic and would support the summary and illegal expulsion of immigrants. ..........."
I do hope that it was a genuine mistake that you "forgot" to place the adjective ILLEGAL before he word immigrants.
Immigrants are more than welcome in our society when they enter our lands legally, hence we know who they are and in controlled numbers.
Where the Maltese people xenophobic when we sent aid to the tsunami victims, sent money and missions to Brazil and Africa etc? Where we racists when aid was sent to Gaza in the last few weeks? Are we racist when money is sent to Mother Theresa's organization?
".....the majority of us......."
Who is "us"?
The problem here is NOT race colour or creed!
The problem if you have not realized is GRADE 1 Maths.
Malta Density = 1,298/km2 (410,290 for 316km2)
Somalia Density = 13/km2 (9,558,666 for 637661km2)
P.S. Thank you timesofmalta.com for giving John the Plumber a voice.
louise vella
Feb 26th 2009, 15:15
Rainier Fsadni, please come down to earth.
“a crucial distinction of international law … Denying this distinction would mean Malta suspends its international obligations at law… the EU … will, at the very least, suspend our membership, if not expel us.”!!!
The following is not in international law. Recently in Luqa, I was chased by an illegal immigrant. He ran away only after I started screaming. I am over 50 years. Can Mr Fsadni understand the problems of young women in their teens and twenties? When did Mr Fsadni last take a bus to Birzebbuga or walk the streets of Marsa?
A friend’s 16-year old daughter was victim of attempted rape by an illegal immigrant. Two years later she is still traumatised and afraid to go out on her own. Tell me about international law!
A school caretaker whose son is a soldier at a detention centre tells me soldiers used to willingly run errands for detainees, sometimes even from their own pocket. Relations have seriously deteriorated since the wilful damage caused by detainees to the centres which had been refurbished by the soldiers, sometimes being better than the soldiers’ barracks. Mr Fsadni, tell me more about international law!
M. Mercieca
Feb 26th 2009, 14:51
I would like peoples to read the following article. Carefully please.
http://euobserver.com/9/27639/?rk=1
18-2-2009
Serious and persistent breach
The EU's Amsterdam Treaty of 1997 gave the bloc a procedure by which the member states can impose sanctions against one of their number, including revoking its voting rights, in the event of a "serious and persistent" breach of human rights.
What defines one is left unarticulated, but Amnesty International believes that the sequence of Italian government actions in relation to immigrants and the Roma amount to such a breach.
"Technically, no individual groups have been named in the legislation," the group's EU office deputy director, Natalia Alonso, told EUobserver. "But in reality, in the context of what is going on - arson attacks on camps by these non-state actors, the census' ethnic profiling, anti-Roma speech by politicians - we know exactly who the legislation is targeting."
@ Ranier Fsadni
Full credit for one of the few sensible and factual argument in connection with irregular immigrants.
Raymond Sammut
Feb 26th 2009, 14:28
@ Ranier Fsadni
I disagree that suspension from the EU would harm Malta's reputation. It is in fact the opposite. For example, had Malta not been an EU member, Franco Frattini would not have been in a position to denigrate Malta the way he did in regard to the tuna-pen saga.
Nor do I believe that suspension would seriously damage tourism and/or foreign investment in Malta. Malta's capacity in these endeavours had been established way back in the sixties. No one could demonstrate that there has been any significant improvement in tourism and foreign investment in Malta since EU annexation six years ago. It is a fallacy to attribute economic success to annexation.
It is also misleading to compare the 440,000 requests for asylum in Germany with the requests that Malta is receiving. For a proper comparison, one would have to analyse whether the applicants are illegal immigrants. Most if not all of Malta's applicants are illegal immigrants trafficked to Malta from Libya.
Finally, it is not "xenophobia" which is rising, but the scourge and criminality of illegal immigration. The potential consequences of this increasing threat cannot be dismissed by unfairly labelling the Maltese people.
Corinne Vella
Feb 26th 2009, 14:19
Malcolm Seychell: For someone who purports to lead us all to salvation, you exhibit an undesirable imperviousness to reason, to logic and to the evidence on which both must necessarily be based. This particular piece has shown the impracticality of ideas that are uncomfortably close to your own. You'd make a better case for yourself were you to produce proof to the contrary, but you don't and that's evidently because you can't.
Politics is not a beauty contest where the winner gets to prance around in a bikini, sash. and tiara. There's real work to be done. How do you propose doing it?
Joseph Cauchi
Feb 26th 2009, 12:14
Mr. Fsadni,
So your argument is live and let live and leave everything to the Divine Providence!
Then what happens then?
../..
Raymond Camilleri
Feb 26th 2009, 12:01
Maybe JPO should join Josie's rabble rousers AN! As for AN's proposals they are simply ridiculous and just populist rhetoric. They want to turn Malta into a pariah state and get us suspended from the EU it seems with all the loss of funds for government projects, NGOs, university, MCAST etc.... one also wonders why Josie, who has a hospital in Libya NEVER criticises Libya and Gaddafi for using human beings as pawns in his sick game!
malcolm seychell
Feb 26th 2009, 11:39
Another left winger who happens to be in the PN.
T Mifsud
Feb 26th 2009, 11:22
Some people really lose all sense of proportion!
How can anyone compare Australia, Earth's most unpopulated temperate land and the largest island on Earth, with Malta, one of the world's tinyest and most densly populated island? And if it was an emergency for Australia what is it for Malta?
We have a tripple emergency here!, not only because our island is tiny with no space left, but because our territory is unprotected and open for all, our society is totally incompatible with such an ethnic group establishing itself here, and that our politicians are hiding behind ordinary obligations for an extraordinary emergency.
We need to act arbitrarily and if necessary unilaterally if the rest of Europe thinks that Malta is the dumping ground and not the sentry of Europe's southern border.
Antoine Vella
Feb 26th 2009, 11:12
JPO himself has to face up to the facts: although the number of immigrants may cause temporary logistical problems, they do not represent such an impossible commitment for Malta as he would have us believe. Moreover there is no easy and ready solution and any pretense that such a solution exists is naive at best and malicious at worst.
Malta will not accept proposals such as those suggested by JPO and the reason is not just international obligations but also internal opposition. Websites like vivamalta.org and timesofmalta.com have created the artificial impression that most Maltese are xenophobic and would support the summary and illegal expulsion of immigrants. Ideas like those expressed on the two websites are however distasteful to the majority of us and we would oppose any attempt to treat immigrants JPO would like us to deal with them.
C Cassar
Feb 26th 2009, 10:49
Good to see someone talking sense about illegal immigration at last. The stark fact is that there are no easy answers and every choice we can make is fraught with serious problems of its own.
Sandro Pace
Feb 26th 2009, 09:50
Eventually, they are leaving Malta with no other option. Besides, while Germany faced large asylum influxes, it could take measures to curb it, and send back those who abused. We cant even do that. And are faced with an interminable influx.
You are misjudging things. EU countries would be foolish to throw Malta out for defending its boarders. They may find themselves in a similar situation. Malta has many friends that understand its plight. Yet if they still decide to blackmail and bully it, than so be it.
Processing or not, burden sharing is so far inisignificant. When they show a will to systematic burden sharing then Malta will re-instate obligations.
Tourists and investment has nothing to do with it. Investment still flows into China and Thailand OK. Tourists will stop coming when Malta will remain no longer Maltese.
We will not be blackmailed into an invasion.
AN solution is the best so far. Divert them to the threshold of our waters to the nearest country. The mediterrenean is small, They will reach the port in a few hours.