Migrant's bid to trace husband foiled
A Somali woman broke down in tears yesterday while admitting that she had tried to leave the island illegally in search of her husband she has not seen for two years.
Nimra Hassan Yassin, 21, was desperate to see her husband after finding out that members of his tribe were in Milan and might be able to help her find him.
A friend of the accused, who felt sorry for her, gave her passport to Ms Yassin in an attempt to get her to Italy and begin the search. But the plan was foiled by an alert air hostess.
As Ms Yassin boarded an Air Malta plane, the air hostess who checked her passport noticed she was not the same person pictured on the travel document and so called immigration officers.
As legal aid lawyer Renzo Porsella Flores was explaining his client's predicament to the court, she broke down in tears. She pleaded guilty to trying to leave the island illegally and was jailed for three months by Magistrate Silvio Meli.
Her plight is similar to that of other immigrants who, on being charged with trying to leave the island illegally, said they were trying to reunite with their family.
Mgr Philip Calleja, head of the Emigrants' Commission, recently controversially justified similar actions by an Ethiopian man, saying that had he been in the same position he would have done the same. The man had "no other way left" to join his wife, Mgr Calleja had said.
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V Zahra
Sep 3rd 2009, 17:48
I would have given her money to get rid of her from Malta not bring it to the attention of the authorities!!! one less illegal immigrant to worry about!!! why the fuss?!
c.caruana
Sep 3rd 2009, 17:07
@T.gauci you got my point, bravu. we can give id cards to imigrants, stating that they are immigrants and not maltese and they can leave anytime they want. all this fuss about passports etc...it's only a human rule not a natural one!!
T.gauci
Sep 3rd 2009, 16:03
@c.caruana
Yeah let's listen to you, ban passports, ban visas, remove borders, become lawless and steal your house because someone want to find a better future. are you living in Soviet union or European union ?
David Dandria
Sep 3rd 2009, 14:37
"As Ms Yassin boarded an Air Malta plane, the air hostess who checked her passport noticed"
I have boarded several Air Malta (and other) planes and the air hostess has NEVER checked my passport. Ofcourse this is probably because I'm white.
So this poor woman, for making false use of a passport is clapped in jail for 3 months (not suspended, mind)! While paedophiles, wife-beaters, fraudsters and thieves get a suspended sentence!
Developers who rape the countryside (ODZ) by building ILLEGAL structures are not only immune from prosecution but actually get the chance to sanction their illegalities!
What a farce of a legal system. SHAME!!
c.caruana
Sep 3rd 2009, 11:06
it makes you a big criminal to escape from a country to find your husband!! lol...maltese please get another hobby rather than accusing people who tried to find a better future in another country. the EU stopped giving visas to africans so they are escaping in this way...are they criminals?? NO THEY'RE NOT!! THEY ARE THE VICTIMS OF GREAT INJUSTICE!!
R Schembri
Sep 3rd 2009, 10:51
It seems it is becoming a habit of having these persons trying to leave the island with another person's passport.
This is not the first person caught like this in the last months. And it seems all have the same excuse that they all are looking for their families in Italy or Spain...or any where else in Europe.
If they so want to go to Europe why doesn't our Government take some steps to send some of these people to anywhere in Europe. They definitely wouldn't feel the burden of these persons as much as we do here in Malta! And it seems that all of them really don't want to stay here in Malta!
lgalea
Sep 3rd 2009, 10:21
If they had stayed in their own country or in Libya they and our country wouldn't be in this mess.