To paraphrase British politician Enoch Powell (1896 - 1972), "We must be mad, literally mad as a nation to be permitting the annual flow [...of illegal immigrants to our shores]. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre." Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius!

And now comes the enthusiastic welcome given by the Malta Tourism Society to the European Asylum Support Office (December 31). Citing Malta's "sense of hospitality and corporate social responsibility", the MTS went a step further and described the basing of the asylum support office "...as a confirmation of the island's capabilities and logistical advantages in Euro-Med relations".

Logistical advantages indeed! Those who argue that Malta was never the intended destination of the incessant flow of illegal immigrants from the Horn and sub-Saharan Africa, should rethink their position. This latest development is bound to entice more to risk the perilous Mediterranean crossing, and human traffickers will waste no time marketing one-way trips to Malta based on this news. Scenes reminiscent of scores of financially strapped Libyan nationals hanging about outside the offices of Libyan Arab Airlines in Valletta, and the old airport entrance at Luqa during the time of the no-travel boycott of Libya will greet workers at the new asylum support office. There exists a saying: Be careful what you wish for. It might materialise in ways you never imagined, nor expected and neither wanted.

Six years into EU membership and the Maltese government is still operating (and dangerously tailoring its policies) under the illusion of EU solidarity when it comes to illegal immigration. "Solidarity" has to be the most overused word in the vocabulary of the Maltese Foreign Minister; I refer to "Illegal immigration - Leaders express solidarity but make no new pledges" (December 30).

Despite numerous diplomatic initiatives, failed ventures, postponed meetings, agreements, commitments, promises made only to be broken, and regulations seldom enforced, Malta still finds itself in the exact same position it was in on the eve of accession: At the bottom of the European pecking order, adrift and awash in a sea of illegal immigrants, rudderless and floundering.

So how will Malta benefit from this asylum support office? Will those approved for asylum be relocated to other countries, or will they be permanently housed in Malta? At whose expense? And what about those who are not granted asylum status? How is Malta to deal with them? Which country will be responsible for their repatriation?

Locating the European Asylum Support Office in Malta does not make sense at all! It should have been located in a north African country.