The recent arrest of three Maltese men allegedly involved in the smuggling of people has been described by the Italian press as a seaborne operation carried out successfully by the Guardia di Finanza. As opposed to the media's indifference towards this episode, the arrest has reinforced the prevailing belief among the Italian public about the Maltese government's "dubious" behaviour in respect of illegal immigration.

In short, the alleged Maltese smugglers, according to the majority of Italians, lend themselves - amid the indifference of the Maltese authorities - to the international criminal organisations that handle this illegal trafficking.

"Managing this traffic is a small organisation based in Malta that loves making money," said Carmelo Petralia, chief prosecutor in Ragusa, to the press, thus confirming a growing hypothesis that the Maltese archipelago is becoming a sort of an intermediary stop for immigrants on their way to Italy.

According to estimates of the Italian police, one-fourth of the 3,000-odd illegal immigrants that live between Marsa and Birżebbuġa, are ready to embark on a vessel and reach Sicily at all costs. This means making a crossing of about 60 miles in little more than an hour with strong-powered speedboats.

It is worth reminding that the three suspects were on board the Maltese-registered powerboat Cigares that has three outboard engines with a total of 1,000 horsepower.

The Italian police could predict and knew that new "smugglers" could easily change tactics; that they were prepared to escape from the sea patrols by any means in order to continue this illegal and morally-shameful trafficking. Because they knew that, at the beginning of spring, about 300 powerful outboard engines had been bought and paid in cash by a Libyan businessman in Valletta.

"These are the terminals of one of the organisations that handle the quick ferrying of migrants towards Sicily; they make such enormous profits that they can afford 1,000-horsepower speedboats," said Francesco Marino, the head of the mobile squad of Ragusa.

In Malta, investigations are being carried out in collaboration with the Italian authorities to determine whether the 19 migrants that landed on Sicily on September 19 had escaped from the island's identification centre. They hail from Niger and Burkina Faso and they all have said they want political asylum.

The arrest of the three suspected people traffickers is the de facto confirmation of the Italian authorities' theory with regard to the alternative and complementary trafficking of illegal immigrants organised in Libya to make sure that such migrants arrive in Sicily from the Maltese archipelago.

Meanwhile, the news came out that the Maltese police had been following the three alleged smugglers for at least 18 months and that they had long suspected that the ferrying of immigrants from open centres to Italy had re-started. The immigrants had to pay €1,000 each to reach the Italian coast. They have to be considered the ill-fated "clients" of a complex organisation that charges at least $2,600 on average for a journey from the heart of Africa to Italy. It is calculated that this trafficking generates over $400 million a year. This money is needed to travel in the Sahara, pass through the Libyan borders and stay there until it's time to leave by sea.

The influx of illegal immigrants that produces ill-gotten gains all over Europe is absolutely intolerable for any nation. According to data released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), between one million and one-and-a-half million migrants pass through Libya, their stepping stone to Europe. Irrespective of the costs involved, the crossings from Africa are on the increase, as evidenced by the adventure of six minors from the Maghreb countries who were desperate and bold enough to cross the Strait of Gibraltar on a small rowing boat. They landed on the Spanish coast and all naïvely confessed that they did not want to do anything illegal; they simply wanted to arrive in Spain and find work. These young men were ready to risk their lives, crossing the not-so-calm sea for hours.

This was a very different scenario from what happened in the waters off Pozzallo on the same day. After a chase that lasted a couple of hours, a very fast speedboat of the Guardia di Finanza blocked a fast offshore boat that allegedly had just disembarked 19 illegal immigrants.

The Italian officers immediately realised that the boat had arrived from Malta: its GPS had memorised the habitual routes, including many in the direction of various points along the Sicilian coast where other landings had taken place.

The Italian authorities have long been trying to get to the masterminds of this criminal organisation that even in Malta is taking advantage of immigrants desperate to reach the continent.

About two months ago, nine migrants from the Ivory Coast and Bangladesh were identified inside a container landed in Pozzallo, in the province of Ragusa, off a vessel that had arrived from Malta. The immigrants had managed to hide on embarkation but were discovered by the vessel's crew a few moments before landing. After being interrogated by the Italian police, they were sent back to Malta.

"The government has no intention of interrupting or suspending the return of such immigrants," said the Deputy Minister of Justice, Alfredo Mantovano, during a hearing of the Schengen Commission on September 22, reiterating Italy's harsh stand on the subject. A similar tough position can be expected with regard to the case against the three suspect human traffickers now under arrest. The criminal charges they face are aiding and abetting in illegal immigration, resisting a naval vessel and trying to ram a vessel.

Italian maritime and immigration laws provide for jail terms in such crimes and this is what is likely to happen in this case even though what is taking place in the Mediterranean Sea is nothing other than the continual movement of populations who have slowly, slowly settled on sea shores and banks and that have absorbed and taken part in the moulding of the culture of the terrible "sea of Europe".

For the alleged Maltese smugglers this will be a historiographic annotation rather than an extenuating circumstance.

What happened on September 19 is proof of further action by the Italian forces in their effort to contain the traffic of illegal immigrants from Gozo, St Paul's Bay and Marsascala that in one year has resulted in the landing of about 300 persons on Sicily through a real and proper transport service organised in Maltese ports.