The stark realities of illegal immigration

Fr Joseph Cassar SJ's Talking Point on Malta and a new world order (April 14) confirms that he is well-intentioned and motivated by noble objectives. Let me take issue with him on just three points.

First, Fr Cassar describes migration as a "reality of global proportions". Surely he does not mean that people worldwide should be free to cross frontiers unhindered and without formalities (passports, ID cards, work permits and other immigration controls). No country in the world allows unlimited immigration, not even the biggest and richest. Why should Malta then follow a "welcome to all" policy, regardless of its needs and its ability to carry the burden? Could Fr Cassar at least tell us the number of immigrants that in his view Malta should be able to take?

Secondly, Fr Cassar is so carried away by the "poverty-migration-human rights nexus" that he gives the impression that migration is to be sought as a desirable objective. To my mind, most people prefer to live and work in their own country. Emigration is resorted to only when jobs are not available locally.

The real solution, therefore, is not for half of Africa's 900 million inhabitants to emigrate to Europe, but for Africans to solve their problems and make their countries liveable.

Thirdly, Fr Cassar refers to "the grim news ... of the death of more than 200 migrants whose heavily overloaded boat sank off the coast of Libya".

With characteristic optimism, he describes this tragedy as "indicative of a world disorder that needs to be addressed with good will, equity and determination".

Most television viewers and newspaper readers know that the tragedy is indicative of a combination of factors: the criminal activities of people smugglers, the complicity of the authorities of countries from which the boats leave, and the enthusiasm of mostly young men to embark on illegal and near-suicide trips. I regret to say that, in the countries at the receiving end of the migration influx, those pleading for the supposed rights of illegal immigrants are, by their rhetoric and advocacy, indirectly encouraging the boat trips.

I am wholeheartedly convinced of Fr Cassar's sincerity and spiritual motivations. But is it too much to ask him to come down to the real world?