Labour Euro MP John Attard Montalto, speaking on Spanish television about illegal immigration, said that in recent years this has outstripped legal migration.

One reason why people leave their country to enter another illegally, said Dr Attard Montalto, was that they were desperate.

The two continents facing the heaviest illegal immigration were Europe and North America, with people from Africa going illegally to Europe and North America being the target for illegal migrants from Latin America.

In North America, there was pressure to change the definition of an illegal migrant in the sense that as soon as an illegal migrant crosses the border, that migrant has the same human rights as every other American citizen.

Dr Attard Montalto said one could not agree with this

concept without clarifying which human rights were being referred to.

It was not possible, he said, for a person to be able to refer to a country’s laws as soon as that person entered that country irregularly.

The country from where illegal immigrants originated was obliged to control its borders, he said.