The bright days and calm waters of the summer have once again brought with them an influx of irregular immigrants to Maltese shores.
Malta is not the only Mediterranean country where landings have been made in these early days of the hot season. Italy and Spain have also reported a heavy influx of people arriving by boat from north Africa, similar to what has happened for quite a number of summers.
It seems that this summer will not be an exception.
The problems are the same as those of the previous years, and unless the international community does something concrete about the matter, the problem of irregular immigration will continue to expand as more people pluck up the courage to risk their life in search of a better future, and move from south to north.
It will also mean that the resources of a small country such as Malta will be, once again, stretched to the limit. The Armed Forces of Malta, for yet another summer, will be called time and again to rescue people stranded on flimsy boats miles off the Maltese coast. Others will make it to land on their own, if they are lucky. Others still will, as has happened in the past, perish with no-one knowing about their tragedy, except perhaps their dear ones who will continue to wait for news from their beloved ones, in vain.
The police will have to handle the new arrivals, while the long process to verify the immigrants’ points of departure and whether they are entitled to be considered as refugees or not will start, without knowing when it will eventually finish.
We will once again have overcrowding at the centres where these people are kept, with their defenders claiming that they are not being held in suitable conditions. Calls for better amenities will be made. The issue as to whether the media should be allowed to visit these zones will come up again.
The police and the AFM will reply that they are doing their utmost to be of service in a crisis and that one cannot expect miracles. The government will say that it cannot allow irregular immigrants to roam about the islands because, after all, they entered Malta irregularly, most of them without documentation.
Some irregular immigrants will complain that the verification process takes too long and they should not be kept in enclosed spaces because they are not criminals. They will say that the Maltese soldiers and the police do not treat them well, with the AFM and the police replying that the immigrants do not behave as they should.
It is a vicious circle, one from which it will be hard to escape unless there is a change.
This is because little has been done and is being done to control the situation, and the problem therefore keeps growing. Individual countries, on their own, and especially if they are small like Malta, can do little to improve the situation. They stand a better chance of success if they join forces and tackle the problem from its roots.
Yet, unfortunately, there seems to be little political will in the international community to deal with the current scenario. It is only those countries that are directly hit by the regular influx of immigrants who are prepared to take the bull by the horns, while the rest of the world watches and waits.
These countries – those who have to continuously monitor their shores and those who have to accommodate hundreds of irregular immigrants on their land – must try to muster more support from the other nations in a bid to try to resolve the situation. Nice words of solidarity are important, but what is needed is a concerted effort and, for sure, a shift from words to action.