There is simply no physical space

Much has been written and debated about the illegal immigration problem that is affecting, mostly, southern Europe. Unfortunately, we are at the southern-most part with Italy being next. So we both bear the brunt of this phenomenon, although it involves the rest of Europe as well.

Most of these immigrants are from countries much farther than Libya. Libya is only the transit area, the first access to the sea. Africa is a huge continent and people in countries inside the hinterland have to travel across thousands of kilometres just to gain access to the sea. Hence, Libya. But also, to a lesser degree Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria; in fact the northern countries touching the Mediterranean are fair game.

So, to put it mildly, we have a problem.

Enter the very fair and paternalistic European politicians to solve this problem. They argue that these immigrants are escaping poverty, wars, ruthless regimes, et al. Others are just taking advantage of these nice politicians to just impose themselves on any country outside their own. But, of course, when they get in a boat, dropped in the middle of the Mediterranean from aboard a ship, they wait until either a Maltese or an Italian patrol boat picks them up and you can't tell who's escaping from a war or who's taking us for a ride. Mission accomplished.

So , what to do? The EU wants to play it by the rules. So, they say, the burden has to be equally shared. But not all countries are equal, are they? There is no comparison between tiny Malta and France, Italy, and Spain, for instance. These countries can easily "lose" two to three million African immigrants, where the locals wouldn't even see them, let alone be bothered by them.

These are only three comparisons with Malta. The same disproportion goes with the other members of the EU like Germany, the UK, Poland and so on. If you take the population and density figures, compared with the rest, Malta has a case of sending people to Africa, not take them in. This is what the EU has to understand. We cannot "share" these immigrants like the big boys.

What our politicians should tell Brussels is that every major European country should border a dozen fields 18 miles long by seven wide, put 400,000 people inside and then drop all the African immigrants on them... and see what happens!

(I'm sure that an area the size of Malta in these countries is only the size of a few fields or forests.) So this is the perspective that has to be borne in mind when dealing with tiny Malta. They call Malta a nation; that's a very big word for a tiny rock in the Mediterranean, which even Google Earth has trouble to find!

If you go by the density figures shown above, then Spain should take all the African immigrants for the next 10 years! And still have land to spare.

Wake up, for heaven's sake, let's be realistic and call a spade a spade. We have to put presumptuousness and nice words to one side. We cannot take any immigrants in on the same level as everywhere else; in fact the only real solution in our case is to stop it, except for very, very genuine and real hardship cases. We should not and cannot be stampeded.

Facts downloaded from Wikipedia

1. Italy

Area: 301,338 km² = (116,346 sq.mls)

Population: 60,017,677

Density: 199.2/km² = (515.8 people per sq.ml)

2. France

Area: 674,843 km² = (260,558 sq.mls)

Population: 65,073,482

Density: 115/km² = (297/sq.ml)

3. Spain

Area: 504,030 km² = (195,364 sq.mls)

Population: 46,157,822

Density: 90 people/km² = (231/sq.ml)

4. Malta

Area: 316 km² = (121 sq.mls)

Population: 404,962

Density: 1,298/km² = (3391 people per sq.ml)