I was glad that Ruben Bonello (Save Them And Then Repatriate Them To Rich Oil Producing Countries, July 23) wrote that it is necessary to save illegal immigrants from drowning, something not everybody unfortunately agrees with. However, I find that his letter includes a number of blind spots.

I would like to know what kind of VIP treatment Mr Bonello is referring to when one talks about overcrowded, bare rooms, tents and warehouses - which sometimes can just be called cages - with complete lack of privacy and an extremely limited amount of toilets or showers, as well as poor health conditions. Apart from this, one must also mention a situation where non-English-speaking people are talked to in broken English, and occasionally, or not-so-occasionally, insulted in Maltese. This "quasi-VIP treatment" is such that if animals were locked up in such conditions, the SPCA would surely make an uproar about it. I assumed that VIPs were treated better than this...

I would also like to know from where Mr Bonello got the idea that immigrants are paid €140 monthly. If he's referring to refugees may I remind him that illegal immigrants and refugees are not the same thing, although the latter very often have to enter a country illegally. Refugees are people who have left their country because they are unwilling or unable to seek protection from that country because of well-founded fear of persecution. This is the definition of the Geneva Convention, which was an effort to give some form of status to the people who had to flee for their lives during World War II. Now the tide has turned. Europe is a rich continent and other countries are in strife. Isn't it time we used with others the same measure we wanted used with ourselves?

I am not implying that Malta can bear this alone. I am glad in fact that Mr Bonello mentioned the money and burden-sharing issues. However, as one can see, help from much richer European countries is slow to come! This does not however give us the right to trample on other people's rights or needs. Criminalising illegal entry of people into a country (i.e. treating people as criminals because of lack of administrative papers) surely doesn't enable people fleeing for their lives to be treated as they deserve. Keeping people in detention centres, as Mr Bonello suggests, surely is not the way to treat such people. Detention is an administrative punishment for a crime committed. Arriving in a country and asking for refugee status is not a crime. So people should not be treated as if they were criminals.

As regards the Muslim presence in Malta because of immigration, may I first of all remind Mr Bonello that a large number of migrants who arrive in Malta are Christian, contrary to what most people think. Secondly, the fact that a number of the people who arrive are Muslims should not in itself pose a problem for a tolerant country. I think that the fear of a drastic increase in Muslim population in Malta due to the possibility of marrying four women (something which is State controlled) is a result of a misinformed opinion. Also it is worth remembering that US State Department reports are not objective but reflect the US's politics and interests. As regards Mr Bonello's suggestion to repatriate Muslims to a Muslim country, I think that using religion in such a discriminatory way is actually another form of religious fundamentalism which can be a result of unjustified fears.

Finally, may I remind Mr Bonello that, contrary to what transpires from his last paragraph, the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service is not to promote illegal immigration. Their role is to try and make sure that people who claim refugee status are given proper and dignified treatment, and that their claims are processed in a fair way. However, owing to the deplorable condition of detention centres it is also important to push for humane treatment of all people on our island, whatever their situation is.