The issue of how Malta is being swamped by wave after wave of illegal immigrants is too sensitive and too nationally important to be made a partisan political football.

Despite this, one cannot but reflect and wonder why on Thursday the Nationalist government was boasting that it had achieved a significant victory in making the other EU member states accept the principle of burden sharing while on Friday the Prime Minister was telling the United Nations General Assembly that Malta was carrying more than its fair share in dealing with this problem.

As The Times pointed out in its front page report on last Thursday’s EU council of justice ministers meeting, the EU accepted the principle of burden sharing. However, as The Times itself reported the Immigration Pact only states that:

"For those member states, which are faced with specific and disproportionate pressures on their national asylum systems, due in particular to their geographical or demographic situation, solidarity shall also aim to promote, on a voluntary and co-ordinated basis, better re-allocation of beneficiaries of international protection from such member states to others, while ensuring that asylum systems are not abused.

"In accordance with those principles, the Commission, in consultation with the UNHCR where appropriate, will facilitate such voluntary and coordinated re-allocation. Specific funding under existing EU financial instruments should be provided for this re-allocation, in accordance with budgetary procedures."

All day Friday, through its media, the Nationalist government made the most of this and presented this as a great victory for its diplomacy and its EU policy.

However, on Friday, in New York, the Prime Minister was telling the United Nations General Assembly, according to The Times, that the immigration problem, “is so acutely disproportionate to the size of the country and its population".

The Prime Minister continued saying that,

"I must highlight the unprecedented increase in the influx of irregular immigrants that have been arriving in Malta mainly from the African continent. It is for this reason that Malta has continuously requested assistance in tackling this problem through the principles of solidarity and sharing of responsibilities from Europe and other countries as well as from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Malta is grateful to those countries that have come forward to assist us in coping with this phenomenon. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done by us all, including the countries of origin and the countries of transit."

The tone here is totally different to that of triumphalism we witnessed on the Government’s and PN’s media claiming that Malta had scored a major victory in making the EU accept the principle of burden sharing. The Prime Minister was clearly saying that nice words and promises of solidarity were clearly not enough and that more tangible steps need to be taken by the international community in order to deal with the problem of immigration.

Coming so close to the triumphalism witnessed here after the text of the EU’s Immigration Pact was published one wonders whether Dr Gonzi’s comments at the UN were not, after all, an admission of failure?