Repatriation as a solution to immigration (3)

The Times of March 3 reported that nine illegal immigrants had returned to their homes in sub-Saharan Africa under the DAR programme. In the issue of February 14, nine Sudanese "were repatriated under [the] voluntary scheme". The March 3 article pointed out that "funding is provided by the EU" and also "[that] a total of 110 migrants have so far returned home under this programme since it was initiated late last year".

It doesn't take a math genius to calculate that €5,000 (the reported pay-off per individual) multiplied by 110 equals €550,000! Neither does it take a financial guru to calculate that the return on an investment of approximately €1,000 (estimated to be the cost of buying passage to Malta by an illegal immigrant) yields a return of 500 per cent under this scheme. Surely, the powers that be can see how ridiculously ironic this situation must appear to Malta's unemployed and the number of Maltese families who are struggling financially as a result of the global economic crisis. Or those who are burdened by excessively high energy bills, as most Maltese are.

The Foreign Affairs Minister touts the voluntary repatriation programme as a partial solution to the country's enormous immigration problem. Many others beg to differ. If anything, word that one can depart Malta with €5,000, after having arrived here illegally, must have formed a line stretching all the way from Libya's coast to its southernmost point of entry.

This practice is an outrage and an affront to the Maltese people! It is in Malta's power to declare a state of emergency and suspend its "international obligations"!