Letters | Sunday, 29 March 2009

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The illegal immigration crisis

In a wonderful spirit of even-handedness, you devoted the 22 March number of MaltaToday overwhelmingly to defend illegal immigrants. May I make a few comments on an article under the title “Are we facing a crisis?” by Neil Falzon, UNHCR liaison officer?
Mr Falzon has never been elected to any office by anybody. Neither have I, of course, but I do not try to dictate policy. How many people does Mr Falzon represent? Has he carried out a public opinion survey to see how many Maltese people agree with him? If he circulates a petition, will he get 1,500 signatures? He speaks on behalf of UNHCR whose mandate is limited to refugees. Does he agree that many of Malta’s illegal immigrants are economic migrants looking for a better life? Does Mr Falzon agree that, like every other sovereign state, Malta has the right and duty to protect its own borders from incursion by outsiders and that every country has the right to choose which foreigners to let in and which others to keep out?
I have been following the illegal immigration crisis for some time. I recall that some years ago, during the stand-off with Spain over the Spanish trawler that wanted to offload its illegal immigrants (picked up in Libyan waters) in Malta, Mr Falzon openly and publicly took the side of Spain, while UNHCR’s Madrid office kept silent. Further, I refer Mr Falzon to the report of Judge Franco Depasquale on the Hal Safi riots in 2005. UNHCR has never commented those parts describing the role of Michele Manca de Nissa, the Rome UNHCR officer who ‘happened’ to be in Malta at the time. Does Mr Falzon have any comment on the scathing judgement expressed by Charles Buttigieg, then Malta’s Refugee Commissioner, on Manca de Nissa’s behaviour (as reported in the Depasquale report)?
All throughout UNHCR has been treating Malta with disdain bordering on hostility, as if our country were some UNHCR colony. Mr Falzon himself takes the liberty of campaigning against Malta and its policies. The UK newspaper The Guardian (30 December 2008) carried an article “Malta: where hysteria is no answer to the plight of refugees”. It quoted Mr Falzon as saying: “There’s an ugly xenophobia developing here and I think the government carries some responsibility for that… It is selling the idea that Malta can’t cope. The truth is it has to. There’s already a settled African population on this island… The government should be leading the process of integrating them with jobs, education and homes instead of taking part in this kind of national hysteria.”
There are millions of refugees in the world and UNHCR should be busy taking care of them. Trying to impose on Malta a policy of integrating illegal immigrants against the will and interests of the Maltese people is no part of UNHCR’s mandate.

Louise Vella
Mosta

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