Your news item “8,880 irregular migrants in six years” (TMID, 21 June 2008) says it all. It could have added that no one can yet see the end of this continuing flow which Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has rightly described as an invasion.

I agree with Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, whom you quoted as saying that most of these immigrants, whether legal or illegal, whether they have been granted refugee status or not, “have no intention of permanently integrating in Malta”.

When the Maltese government tries to convince other EU countries to carry part of our burden, it should remind them that Malta is carrying some of the responsibility of their colonial empires.

Most Somalis and Eritreans want to go to Italy, Nigerians and Ghanaians to Britain, Chadians and Senegalese to France, and so on. Therefore when we ask for burden sharing we are not begging for charity, but insisting that the former colonial powers shoulder their international and moral obligations.

As Dr Mifsud Bonnici realistically added, “Malta will never be in a position to successfully integrate more than a very small number of legally residing third-country nationals”.

However, burden sharing and the repatriation of irregular migrants are only rearguard actions. The best defence is to stop or moderate the influx at its source. An invasion calls for defensive actions.

In days gone by, armies and navies invaded foreign countries and had to be stopped or dissuaded by other armies and navies. The present silent or soft invasion is the work of criminal organisations of traffickers in human beings and can be stopped by coastguards. That is the function of Frontex but it has so far failed dismally in its objective.

In the meantime, the numbers keep growing. Next year no doubt Dr Mifsud Bonnici will update his figure and tell us that more than 10,000 illegal immigrants have landed in seven years.

But is the role of the government to keep statistics or to stop the invasion?

LOUISE VELLA

Mosta