Azzjoni Nazzjonali leader Josie Muscat said today that unless the EU agreed to share the burden of illegal immigrants, migrants should be sent to Brussels so that one could then see how it would tackle the problem.

Speaking at a press conference outside the open centre in Marsa, Dr Muscat said illegal migration was a growing problem which Malta needed to tackle with more vigour before it spiralled out of control.

One had plenty of examples of what happened abroad when immigrant communities grew, he said. Integration had not succeeded in any country and new issues cropped up - for example, people started demanding the removal of crucifixes, their own place of worship and their own schools. Could Malta sustain two totally different cultures?

Dr Muscat said Malta should impose tougher penalties on employers who engaged illegal immigrants and they should even lose their commercial licence.

The Immigration Department also needed to be better resourced so that it could keep better tabs on people who came to Malta on a visitor visa but then overstayed.

Furthermore, every effort should be made to deport illegal migrants, and those who stayed on should be required to work so that they could pay for services they received in detention centres.

Dr Muscat said illegal immigrants were straining the police and the armed forces, who could not allocate enough resources for their core roles.