He is at the centre of a political storm on immigration raised by the opposition and fanned by others from his own party but Carm Mifsud Bonnici will not be taken in by the alarmist talk.
"It is not an easy problem to manage but I feel we are coping. It is not a crisis situation," he says.
His assessment of the situation is totally different from that of his Cabinet colleague Foreign Minister Tonio Borg, who recently said immigration was the country's "biggest problem".
Talking to The Times before last night's continuation of the parliamentary debate on illegal immigration, Dr Mifsud Bonnici insists he has "suggested" using the veto power at a European level.
"There have been circumstances when I have objected and suggested the use of the veto when meeting my European counterparts but I don't want to emulate Dom Mintoff in Helsinki with the consequence of isolating myself from the discussion table. I am not prepared to be intransigent," Dr Mifsud Bonnici says.
Contrary to his backbench colleague Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, who has demanded "quick solutions", Dr Mifsud Bonnici insists there are "no magic solutions" to the problem.
"We are in the middle of a migratory flow. The problem is how to manage this situation in a humane and logical way," he says.
He admits there is little realisation among politicians that this phenomenon will not just go away.
Focussing on the Labour Party's 20-point action plan, he says it lacks a deeper insight into what the difficulties are.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici says he briefed Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat and Labour MP Michael Falzon in October giving them confidential information on the dynamics of the problem and what action the government is taking to address the issue.
With hindsight, he feels the government's side was wrong "not to call Dr Muscat's bluff" when he first suggested an urgent debate because he would have been caught completely unprepared.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici expresses his disagreement with the proposal to have a limit on the number of immigrants the country will accept. "What do I do if the limit is reached and somebody is in distress?"
In its action plan, the PL proposed skills training and educational programmes for immigrants in detention to enable them to get accustomed to the Maltese way of life.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici says these are already being implemented but he was still "not happy about them".
"We are improving things gradually but we were overwhelmed by the increased arrivals last year and this winter and so progress to improve detention facilities slowed down," he insists.
He is against suspending Malta's international obligations to put pressure on the EU. "The country will suffer because it will be ostracised from the internal debate where we hope to achieve something," he says.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici is also against the PL's proposal not to finger-print illegal immigrants as requested by the Dublin II Convention. He insists it will only leave those that come to Malta in a state of illegality contradicting Dr Muscat's repeated insistence that he was against all illegality.
The minister skirts the sensitive issue of integration, insisting it is difficult to achieve since most immigrants want to move on.
"What we understand by integration is long-term settlement in the community. But how do I do it if they just want to move on," he asks himself, admitting much more could be done in this regard.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com