Nationalist Party secretary-general Joe Saliba has been reported as saying that MLP leader Alfred Sant “should retract his declaration that the national interest should come before human rights”. (The Malta Independent, 14 September).

I would like to know how many other things come before the national interest for Mr Saliba. It seems that he has forgotten that the people who elected his party to government are the Maltese people and not the illegal immigrants.

I suggest to Mr Saliba that he goes and works with these immigrants to see whether they show gratitude for our hospitality or not. All the soldiers, policemen and nurses I have talked to tell me the same thing: the immigrants think that they have a right to come here illegally and live off our taxes. Is this the kind of people we should put ahead of our country’s well being?

Paul Gauci

San Gwann