It was recently pointed out that certain European countries are crying out for workers, as there is a shortage of both skilled and unskilled people in various job markets.

Interior Minister Tonio Borg pointed out that certain countries such as France, Germany and Italy are crying out for people to fill gaps in the employment market as there are not enough people available. This, he said, all ties in with European Commissioner Franco Frattini’s backing of a scheme to introduce re-settlement quotas for irregular migrants to various countries in Europe.

As it stands, a good deal of migrants to these countries arrive from North Africa and Turkey where they seek out jobs and work legally (or illegally). Dr Borg, with Mr Frattini’s backing, suggested that a quota of migrants housed in Malta and other problem islands, such as Lampedusa or the Canaries, might help all involved. How, you may ask? Dr Borg had also said that Malta faces a bigger problem than the above mentioned islands, mostly due to the fact that while Lampedusa and the Canaries can send migrants on to mainland Spain and Italy respectively, Malta cannot.

If we look at the local scenario, many immigrants are filling sectors of work that, to be very frank, the Maltese do not want to associate themselves with. This means construction, street cleaning, manual work, refuse collection and a great deal more. Without being derogatory, many of these people do not have the skills to carry out professions, so they enter the employment sector in jobs such as those mentioned. They earn an honest living in that way – and much as in France, Germany and Italy, they fill a sector which would otherwise struggle.

All in all it is a good idea which will benefit all concerned – Malta as a host, migrants themselves, and other states which will receive the quota of workers that they actually need. Of course, the whole system would have to be monitored, with Dr Borg seeing it in his mind’s eye as something similar to the Green Card system in the United States. This would effectively mean that migrants would apply to work legally in Europe for a stated amount of time after which they would return to their country of origin which will have improved in say – five years.

The important area to push and not lose momentum, is for migrants to be taken from existing holding compounds in Europe – Malta included. It would be absolutely non-sensical for countries to take in quotas directly from Africa before first taking as many as possible from those who are already in Europe, and also a burden on taxpayers.

However, we must also be careful as this could turn out to be a double-edged sword. We do not want to find ourselves in a situation where we are attracting more immigrants because this scheme is in place.

Perhaps what should be done is to set up this Card system and give amnesty to those who are in holding in Europe – but it should be made clear that once those are gone, migrants who try to enter the country illegally will be penalised on a points system. If you apply from your home country, you get a said number of points, but if you enter Europe illegally and then apply, you get points docked.

It is not a watertight proposal, but there is definite room to improve on it. We believe that if the relevant ministers in Europe put their heads together, they can come up with a workable solution drafted on these lines. We might have said it ad nauseum, but this problem is not going to go away, it is going to grow and it will spiral out of control if we do not find a safety valve which we can use. This is one possible example.