There is a vast difference between the deliberate process of fomenting racial disharmony and xenophobia and putting into practice the obligation and responsibility vested in those charged to govern and protect the security and well-being of Maltese nationals as well as those privileged to legally live in Malta.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s recent utterances on the issue of immigration affecting Malta, while controversial by their very nature, should be viewed by reasonably minded people as balanced and highly responsible, with no hint of xenophobia.
Anything less would represent an abdication of the Prime Minister’s position as the leader responsible for securing Malta’s shores from potentially an invasion of veritable biblical proportions.
Some might argue this sounds unduly alarmist, so let’s examine the facts and make some comparisons with other countries. A recent article in London’s Daily Telegraph suggested that illegal immigration on the same scale in Britain would amount to some additional 2.5 million people or the equivalent of two Birminghams. By relative comparison, just this last year’s intake of refugees by Malta would be the equivalent of an incremental increase of a million people in Spain or Germany. Malta’s size and population puts it in the worst possible position to have an open door policy on immigration and most particularly dependent unskilled refugee immigration. Health and social services, security forces and indeed the economy are being subjected to unreasonable external pressures which may become unsustainable over a short period.
Malta’s European culture, including its religion, are under increasing pressure and grave risk.
We sit on the very doorstep of hundreds of millions of people with vastly different cultures, values and faiths, ostensibly fleeing from dysfunctional governments of their own creation who for varied reasons desire to take that first step into Europe to what they consider a better future. One of the main problems is the fact that the much larger members of the EU have conspired to ensure that Malta becomes a permanent buffer zone between the source of the refugee problem and their own backyards.
This is a global issue growing exponentially in numbers and in political unease among governments of host nations. In Australia, the chosen home of many different races of people from all over the world and roughly the size of North America with just some 22 million people, the issue of illegal immigration has toppled different heads of government and moulded policy in accord with the flow and ebb of public opinion.
As government policy eased with subsequent change of governments, refugee numbers increased from the mere trickle to some 17,000 in 2012, still relatively very small and insignificant by comparison to Malta, but enough to topple Prime Minister Julia Gillard and bring in Kevin Rudd who was a leading Labour Party front bencher and a vocal critic of Howard’s policies at the time of the Tampa affair.
Within days of returning to the helm of the current Australian government Prime Minister Rudd completed his total reversal of his previous position on illegal immigration and shut the entry gate to Australia by rerouting all refugees to Papua New Guinea with the agreement of the PNG government backed by incentives of additional foreign aid.
Malta is too vulnerable to adverse economic and social changes for the current unbridled situation to continue
Rudd has also put a price on the head of people smugglers and committed to pursue their prosecution wherever they may be. A classic case of political pragmatism in the face of electoral annihilation particularly in certain parts of NSW where many refugees were being settled. Simon Busuttil take note and ignore the political imperative at your own and your party’s risk.
Malta’s main economic activity is tourism. The burgeoning presence of refugees loitering aimlessly in certain parts of Malta and in some cases, albeit a minority, making news for very often the wrong reasons will sooner or later negate some of the better visual aspects of life in Malta. Malta is too small and crowded, too culturally homogeneous and different from invading cultures and too vulnerable to adverse economic and social changes for the current unbridled situation to continue.
It’s all very well for the idealist dwellers of that most centralist ivory tower in Strasbourg to flex their regulatory muscles against the smallest of nations in the Union and assuage rightly placed Maltese concern and indignation with a few additional million euro, hoping the problem will go away for a while. It would be interesting to see the same pressure and policy being applied to, for example, Germany as it pursues policies anathema to unchecked immigration; or to Britain as it insists that those claiming refugee status and engage in the vocal support of terrorism are sent to those countries demanding their extradition even when long-term imprisonment and possibly worse could be awaiting their return; or to France with its growing opposition to unchecked immigration from some of its former African colonies.
The giants of the Union like Germany, France and others have demonstrated no compunction in sending back to Malta refugees who have managed to make their way to mainland Europe from Malta but eventually run into the clutches of their enforcers. Central European policy on refugee immigration has been duplicitous to say the least, grossly favouring the northern influential states and ignoring the pleas for help of the smaller states such as Malta.
Problems associated with the immigration issue in Malta will continue to grow and fester and the government should not be tempted to turn a blind eye to the growing social and economic issues at the whiff of some token monetary compensation from Europe. The social issues are too significant for Malta, the costs hidden and clearly apparent are too serious, the future too uncertain.
The only certainty is that the scale of the problem will increase and the severity of the issues will be compounded and will produce extreme attitudes and outcomes which are not synonymous with the welcoming generosity of the Maltese people.