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Sunday 5 September 53 immigrants, Monday 6 September 21 immigrants arrive in Malta. The daily evening news coverage includes growing number of immigrants reaching our shores. To date as per figures revealed by the Police Commissioner last Friday, 1,014 illegal immigrants are in the hands of the police and the army currently, of which 596 are in detention centres and 418 are in the open centres manned by the army and police.
It appears that 80 of have been given refugee status while 500 have received temporary humanitarian status.
While waiting for their status to be processed some live in four overcrowded detention centres which have at times led to riots by protesting detainees and the internment of asylum seekers in MT Carmel hospital to be treated for mental illnesses. It is clear that we are on the threshold of an emergency situation. Illegal Immigration is fast becoming a political issue. The matter is of growing concern to the average family.
The matter must be tackled calmly dispassionately yet firmly. Our Government, which is fully aware of the political fall out, attempts to act and appear tough while being fully cognisant that it must, at all costs, act in a politically correct and humane manner.
Balancing these two approaches is not at all easy and requires much skill of operation. The numbers involved and the limited resources of the State to handle such an explosive situation requires that structures and a management system to cope with this emergency are set up. The time to act is now.
It must be established first and foremost that we are here dealing with a humanitarian problem. These immigrants are not leaving their country capriciously. Their departure is a response either to fleeing persecution or to the lack of opportunities of work and a basic living standard. The possibility that some are criminals seeking to exercise their criminal activities in Europe, must also not be discounted. The immigrants’ plight remains one of desperation. Leaving on just a wooden float at times no longer than 18 feet long and crammed with desperate people, without sufficient supplies and knowledge of their destination, can only be the work of a desperate person, whose feeling of despair and readiness to do anything regardless of danger shows a mind set of having lost all hope. This desperate situation must lead us to question why do they leave in spite of all the dangers? We must not only question illegal immigration but also the causes of their plight. We believe that the growing gulf between the rich and the poor countries is the major cause of the migration.
It must equally be emphasised that our country cannot cope with such a large number of illegal immigrants. Our size and our financial resources are limited especially in the prevailing difficult financial situation. The financial burden runs into two million liri yearly. The temporary solution of keeping them in detention centres - apart from the problem of overcrowding - is also financially unsustainable. The detention camps are a clear limitation on the freedom of movement and privacy of immigrants and gets us no closer to finding a long term solution to the problem. The detention centres have also been strongly criticised by The Council of Europe Commissioner for refugees, Alvaro Gil-Robles as being “totally inadequate and… should be closed down at the first opportunity.”
We need to look for a solution together with other countries and organisations outside our territory. The illegal immigration problem is a EU problem that has to be tackled jointly by all the 25 members.
This is also a test case for Europe's enshrining value of solidarity. The problem is not particular to Malta. It is being experienced by all States bordering on the southern European shore. Other European countries particularly Italy are going through the same difficulties.
The solution must be found within the European Union and or alternatively the United Nations context. Herein lays the chance to find a long-term solution. This is where the Malta government should carry on lobbying without missing further opportunities for financial aid. It is extremely regrettable that our country lost out from benefiting from EU refugee funds because it failed to apply with another EU member in time.
Within the European Union and the United Nations, Malta must carry on lobbying to be helped and supported in dealing with the high influx of illegal immigrants.
The problem must be tackled and sorted out in Northern Africa before these desperate people embark on their journey of hope. Ideally as has already been suggested by the newly appointed European commissioner Rocco Buttiglione, areas known as safe areas or protected areas or clearing houses must be set up in Northern Africa preferably in Libya where they would be under the control of The United Nations and from where all the documentation and the administrative work necessary will be sorted out.
These UN designated areas should be administered and financed by the UN. The present situation is taxing the resources of the police corps and the army. The situation warrants that currently 100 policemen a day are fully occupied policing the situation. It is clear that police resources are being stretched to their limits.
The close to emergency situation warrants that the matter is dealt with in a bi-partisan approach. Both political parties represented in Parliament should set up a Parliamentary Committee to recommend an action plan to deal with this emergency.
This needs to be set up with immediate effect so that citizens are assured that the situation is in hand, that they need not panic as may have been the case when illegal immigrants freely walked ashore on Gozo last weekend. The manner and the facility in which they strolled along certified the way our coastline is easily accessed.
The present ping-pong between both political parties is nauseating. The impression being given is that one side simply is taking advantage of a difficult situation while the other side is defensively defending its actions. Rather than carry on arguing it is best decided that they work together to draw up an action plan.
The situation is a desperate one that requires European structures to be put in place before the situation worsens.
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