After witnessing the undignified way migrants were treated during his travels in America and South America, French-born Georges Alexandre was shocked to return to Europe after 17 years to find the same attitude.
In Malta I saw a lot of poverty at the open centre
Determined to do something about this injustice, the former clerk transformed himself into a defender of immigrants’ rights.
In 2010 he embarked on an awareness raising project and started kayaking along migration routes in Europe – which brought him to Malta.
Since his arrival in March, he has visited migrants at the Ħal Far open centre and spoken to organisations that work in migration.
“In Malta I saw a lot of poverty,” the 43-year-old French-Canadian said, clarifying he was speaking about the open centre.
He believes that while Malta has its shortcomings, and should not be detaining migrants for 18 months on arrival, people here are treated with much more respect than in Italy, where he spent a year.
Mr Alexandre left France at the age of 23 and moved to Canada from where he often travelled to America and South America.
There he became sensitised to the way migrants were treated.
On returning to Europe he witnessed the same treatment and started his kayaking campaign – Kayak for the Right to Life – to express his indignation at the ongoing migration tragedy and to urge the EU to manage immigration in a less costly and more humane way.
Since 1988 thousands of men, women and children have died in the Mediterranean Sea attempting the “voyage of hope” to Europe.
Tens of thousands of others were crowded into detention centres on a temporary or long-term basis, Mr Alexandre said.
Many await deportation to their country of origin or to one of the countries they transited – in what he said was a clear violation of international agreements for the protection of refugees.
He believes that insufficient social measures are in place in Mediterranean countries.
In November 2010, at the beginning of his year-long stay on Lampedusa, he circled the island in his kayak to draw the attention of the inhabitants to the fact that the Italian government was illegally sending refugees back to Libya.
After Sicily, he travelled to Tunisia which he left last September and has since kayaked to Lampedusa, Linosa and Malta.
During his stay here he requested to meet Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and President George Abela to discuss the issue.
He did not hear from Dr Abela but was asked to meet the Prime Minister on Friday. He will not be able to make it since he leaves Malta on Thursday.
He will depart at about 8 a.m. from the Royal Malta Yacht Club in Ta’ Xbiex and will head for Sicily from where he will follow the west coast of Italy and the Côte d’Azur to Marseille, France.
He plans to reach Brussels in September or October to deliver to the European Parliament a demand for greater attention to the lives and rights of the migrants.
He will also be handing over a petition, signed by people and politicians in Lampedusa, calling for the setting up of an Organisation for the Management of Immigration and Asylum Requests (OMIAR).
This would put in place a migration plan common to all member states.