To enter a country legally, one must be in possession of the necessary documents. To enter any other way is illegal, whatever Ranier Fsadni or those of like persuasion say (April 10).

Once in Malta, the minority who are found to be genuine asylum seekers are given the necessary documents to convert their status from one of illegality to one of legality. Then what? Can our tiny economy absorb them? I think not.

We owe absolutely nothing to the vast majority who are denied asylum status and who are simply seeking a better life.

Our tiny economy cannot provide this for them. They need to be repatriated or accommodated in larger economies; however since they destroy their documents, this is not an easy task. Devoid of asylum status they maintain their status as illegal immigrants.

Fsadni says that we should integrate all who reach our shores; indeed, he says that without them doing jobs such as those in the construction industry, our economy would collapse.

Has he seriously thought through the logical outcome of our tiny economy absorbing thousands and thousands of extra people?

The first generation may be happy to work in relatively low paid jobs, but their ‘integrated’ children will expect something better.

They may well want to go to university; where are these extra places to come from? They will want well-paid jobs. Where are these jobs to come from? Our health service is already at breaking point. How is it to cope with all these extra users? They will demand changes in our way of life to accommodate their own traditions; this has happened elsewhere. Will our islands be immune? I think not.

An endless diet of platitudes and assurances that it will all be hunky-dory in the end is not going to solve the problem. The average citizen has no other way of voicing concern but by his/her vote.

I suspect they will voice it very loudly at the appropriate time.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.