In Exodus 22:20-26 we read: “The Lord said to Moses: ‘Tell the sons of Israel this: You must not molest the stranger or oppress him, for you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt.’”

It is an ironic truth that many of those who talk so loudly against strangers in their midst are themselves the descendants of immigrants. Take, for example, the US and Australia, lands peopled by immigrants, where the anti-immigrant sentiment has reached a highest peak.

President Obama in a speech to the nation on November 20, 2014, on new immigration steps, stated: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.

“And whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific or the Rio Grande, we are here only because the country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are or how we worship.

“What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.”

Everyone pays lip service to the concept of solidarity, but few European leaders today are ready to stand up and be counted

Another world leader recently in the news on the subject of immigration was David Cameron.

He is under extreme pressure from the right-wing of his own party. With elections fewer than six months away his party is being seriously threatened by the Ukip upsurge, especially after the loss by a large swing of the normally safe Tory seat to that party at the Rochester and Strood by-election.

In a recent, well-publicised speech in a factory in the West Midlands, Cameron said he was confident he could change the basis of EU immigration policy, something which, he knows, would require the approval of other EU countries since such changes would bring about fundamental alterations to the EU base treaties.

Restricting the free movement of people is a no-go area in the EU as has been made abundantly clear by Angela Merkel of Germany, currently the most influential leader in Europe.

Cameron’s present anti-EU stance is unconvincing. He has in the past declared his intention to campaign for the UK to stay in Europe, knowing quite well that exiting from Europe could bring about serious damage to the UK economy and that the continued prosperity of the UK and its future economic expansion is dependent on a large increase in the work-force, which the UK by itself cannot sustain from its own human resources given its consistently falling birth rate.

What needs to be tackled fairly and energetically is the problem of irregular and illegal immigration. Europe cannot continue ignoring this issue. As Pope Francis said on November 25 during an address to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe assembly in Strasbourg: “Europe seems to give the impression of being somewhat elderly and haggard, feeling less and less a protagonist in a world which frequently regards it with aloofness.”

The Pope reserved some of his strongest language by calling for a “united response” to the plight of migrants fleeing from the Middle East and Africa. “We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery,” he lamented.

Will this heartfelt call fall again on deaf ears, as it usually does?

Everyone pays lip service to the concept of solidarity, but few European leaders today are ready to stand up and be counted – not when the widespread anti-immigrant feeling across the continent is threatening their political survival. The Pope concluded his speech as follows: “We encounter a general impression of weariness and aging, of a Europe which is now a grandmother, no longer fertile and vibrant.”

It has been said that Malta, being a very small, dense and overpopulated island, cannot cope with a large onslaught of irregular immigrants. It is also extremely naive to presume that this will not affect our lives, our traditions, our customs and our economy.

George Borg Olivier was right, when signing the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees on June 17, 1971, to make reservations on important articles which would only apply to Malta in consideration of its “capability with its own special problems, its peculiar position and characteristics.”

These were far-sighted reservations by a man known for his practical wisdom, but they were all abandoned in January 2002 in anticipation of Malta’s accession to the EU.

Malta, known throughout its history for its hospitality – Malta ħanina – needs to uphold this characteristic and never resort to extreme counter-measures against those desperate people seeking to escape terror and oppression in their own countries.

But our leaders need also, for once, to combine their efforts in a common front to bring the plight of Mediterranean countries (especially ours) to the top of the EU agenda.

Mare Nostrum has only given us a short respite. The problem might hit us again with some vengeance in the not-too-distant future. Are we preparing ourselves for it?