Europe needs immigration while Malta does not - KMB

Europe needs to boost its birth rate instead of promoting contra-ception and encouraging immigration, according to former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.

The leader of the Campaign for National Independence (CNI) said the EU considered immigration to be essential to make up for its shrinking population and shortage of workers. But Malta was in an entirely different position because of its immensely high population density and lack of space.

He said the EU's approach to contraception was paradoxical, because if it wanted to reverse its shrinking population it made more sense to create incentives to increase the birth rate rather than encourage immigration.

He said immigration brought with it huge social problems, such as social conflict and a need for housing and social services. He announced that so far more than 25,000 people had signed the CNI petition against illegal immigration, which calls on Parliament to come up with effective and drastic measures to stop immigration without delay.

CNI's proposal is for Malta to help migrants on their way to Europe rather than bringing them ashore for processing.

"As things stand Malta is an obstacle to what the EU and what the immigrants themselves want," he said.

But if the EU did not want Malta to help the immigrants get to Europe, Malta should copy Italy's policy of returning migrants to where they came from, which in most cases meant Libya.

Italy's policy had proven to be effective and was in fact the reason migrants had stopped making the treacherous journey this summer because they knew that if they arrived to Italy they would be sent back immediately, said Dr Mifsud Bonnici.

In fact, his proposals come in the wake of a strange lull in migrant crossings.

"But do not delude yourselves that the problem is not with us any longer," he said, adding that Malta still had thousands of migrants which it could not cater for.

Italy had not violated any human rights because Libya was not the country that immigrants were escaping from, he argued.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that while burden-sharing and allocation quotas were good for Malta, they also made the country more attractive to migrants. Such policies could only be effective once Malta's "doors" were closed to more immigrants.

"If you have a tank of water with a few holes but you keep filling it with water it will never empty. You need to turn off the tap," he concluded.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com