Few of us realise that illegal immigration just didn't come out of the blue. Some blame left-wing politics for bringing about this crisis.

However, ironically, it is those who have for long praised capitalism and free trade which have created all this - the right-wing. Few of us realise that when we buy a €1.50 cappuccino, the African farmer won't even get 2c. Someone is making money but it is definitely not the African farmer.

It's unfair trade between rich nations and poor nations that is creating all this. The profits of the transnational corporations in those countries do not benefit the poor country but are generated into the economy of the country where the mother company is situated.

Few realise that the world's poorest women make the world's most expensive clothes. Few realise that if poor countries can increase their share of world exports by one per cent they could lift 128 million people out of poverty. But, until then, what would you do when you can't make a living in your land? You leave.

World trade rules have widened the difference between the rich and poor. It's time for the European Union to change the rules if it really wants to end illegal immigration. This does not mean that we should not safeguard our national interest first; we must and we should.

However, Malta also has a duty to safeguard the world from the usual capitalist exploitation and excessive consumerist propaganda. The good news is that fair trade has been growing at 37 per cent year to year, making people wonder whether fair trade is the biggest growing market after the internet.

Make trade fair, end poverty and illegal immigration.