Michael Conti's letter, Migrants Should Not Be Treated Like Criminals, could not go unanswered by any Maltese citizen having the tiniest amount of concern for his country. He begins his defence of illegals by stating that they are housed in "overcrowded, bare rooms, tents and warehouses... "

The recent tour of the media to the detention centres should be sufficient enough to show the public otherwise. On top of this, having three meals a day at the expense of the taxpayers hardly qualifies as deplorable conditions of accommodation Mr Conti is attempting to portray to readers.

He is correct when he says that refugees and illegal immigrants are not the same. While I am strongly in favour that the former should be given the necessary help, the latter have no genuine intentions of being in the country other than to live off the overstrained state coffers.

By his own admission, the writer then goes on to state that the Geneva Convention was drafted shortly after World War II. But since then the world has changed beyond recognition and, therefore, we should not be expected to adhere strictly to an outdated convention.

Regarding his claim of illegality, it is obvious that entering any territory without valid documentation is illegal, period.

Therefore, any attempt to legitimise it is nothing but aiding and abetting illegality. Silvio Berlusconi's government is in the process of making illegal entry in Italy a criminal offence.

In the same way, Australia some years ago, stopped practically all landings of boat people on its shores. So what is stopping us from showing the same determination to act in the country's best interests?

The vast majority of illegal immigrants landing almost daily on our shores are Muslims, contrary to what Mr Conti states; and this is a cause of concern in a Catholic country, the official religion in its Constitution.

When Muslim men marry non-Muslim women, they make it a condition that the children born from such marriages are raised as Muslims. And in their culture, they don't have just one or two children.

So in a couple of generations, we will experience a decline in the Catholic population and a rise in the Muslim one.

Then pressure will mount on Parliament to remove Catholicism as the sole official religion of this country, ban the celebration of Christmas and maybe even the consumption of beer and spirits.

What will the pro-immigration lobby have to say then, when it will be too late to save the day? In the light of all this then, repatriating Muslim immigrants to Muslim countries is beneficial due to the fact that it will be easier for them to integrate there.