Xarabank’s programme on illegal immigration has demonstrated further the true agenda of Peppi and Co. It was two hours of pro-immigration propaganda interspersed with interventions from honest and concerned speakers who were continuously and arrogantly interrupted by a supposedly unbiased presenter. Hats off to the gentleman on the panel who walked out. He most appropriately criticised Mr Azzopardi saying; “What is the use of having a good team, when the referee has been bribed.”
To be noted was the absence of the Opposition’s speaker on illegal immigration. Also, had Mr Azzopardi allowed phone-ins, I am sure public comments would have contrasted starkly with Xarabank’s survey results.
The producers screened well-staged film snippets meant to generate compassion. However, they conveniently failed to show or mention the recent violent riots in the detention centres where several of our lads were injured. These offences were committed by unprovoked immigrants while still under the control of the army. What will happen once these criminals are released into the open centres?
Up to a few weeks ago, parliamentary secretary Tony Abela was rightly speaking on the unsustainable situation created by the large number of immigrants. Yet during the programme he spoke only of unconditional assistance no matter their numbers. True to his master’s voice, he played the Christian tune as justification. Evidently he had suffered the same fate as MP Franco Galea.
Our politicians are either daft or take us for fools if they believe even for one minute that Europe has any interest in helping Malta. Our nation has been repeatedly rebuffed by Europe with the latest in the series being the recent events in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The delegation of MEPs who were to visit Malta went to Spain instead. Malta’s name did not even appear in the debate held at the plenary session of the European Parliament and this after the much-trumpeted ministerial delegations to Europe. The repatriation of 3000 illegal migrants mentioned during the programme consisted in the absolute majority of passport holders with expired visas. The 170 Egyptians were repatriated at their own request and only after signing a document to this effect, lest Amnesty International criticises us. When will the government get its priorities right and place the interest of the Maltese first and foremost?
By now, most households should have received the ministry of health information leaflet on the avian pandemic flu. I do not agree with what was stated in this leaflet, that Malta is unlikely to be one of the first hit countries. On the contrary, I believe Malta will be one of the first and worst hit countries unless the government takes drastic action to stop all illegal immigrants from entering Malta. It is of little comfort to protect our poultry from infection when our backdoors are wide open to human virus carriers.
Migratory birds on their annual journey to the African continent are spreading the avian flu. Due to its vast size and uncontrolled areas, Africa will present the ideal conditions for the deadly H5N1 virus to mutate into a variant capable of spreading among humans. According to scientists, this is only a question of when, not if.
As from next year, Malta will be responsible for the rescue of all illegal immigrants in an area covering 260,000 square kilometres. This means thousands of possibly infected Africans being landed in our country. Due to our dense population and small size, the virus will spread like wildfire. The anti-virus vaccine, which is expected to take 10 months to develop from the time the new strain appears, will come too late for Malta. Thousands of Maltese will succumb to this disease.
Charles Debono
MARSA