From Mr J. M. Cachia

“Better be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident security”

Edmund Burke

This is Malta, my country, which should never be challenged by any immigrants. We must not be soft on illegal immigrants – in fact, on all illegal immigrants.

The Maltese are much more than a tolerant people, but finally, when cornered, they will do what it takes to save their country.

They definitely are not anti-immigration. But we must not lose our minds to this so-called “multiculturalism”.

We are a very small island and already dangerously overcrowded. This can only lead to more and ever-increasing demands on our diminishing resources in services, education, healthcare and energy. We are the most crowded country in Europe and, furthermore, our overpopulation has already caused significant environmental degradation and increased social pressures. I trust that anyone with a survival instinct will treat this matter with the serious study it deserves. This is not a hypothetical issue but a situation we are all starting to face.

And before you start accusing us of any absence of sympathy for these illegal immigrants who are crossing the sea on their rickety boats, it would be far better to understand why this is occurring by studying what is driving this illegal immigration. Could it be that fear, hopelessness and poverty are the main drivers of such immigration? Of course we can show compassion. Weren’t we vociferous enough against the war on Iraq, where over one million civilians have been killed so far? And please, stop this nonsense of calling us racists! How long can you prosecute people for voicing their opinion, before they explode?

Stop this bluff!

We just had a failed ‘Frontex’. Irrespective of all that has been said, the continual influx of illegal immigrants to our island amply confirms its failure. It seems that we have not been bamboozled enough to learn any lesson.

And so we now come to the latest bluff! This is all a pie in the sky idea, if ever there was one; it cannot be described as a joke, and that’s the pity of it all.

Thus, we have the cream of Malta’s politicians and diplomats gladly accepting to obligate Malta to sign the EU Immigration Pact, delighted that it now contains a commitment (on a voluntarily basis of course) towards burden sharing. If we are honestly expecting something tangible and beneficial to our country coming out of this, we are truly in a pitiful state. This may well sound the death knell of our nation!

What is the use of the Labour Opposition urging the Prime Minister not to sign the EU Immigration Pact? Besides the fact that the Pact is well-nigh signed, as the Prime Minister is now committed and is definitely not going to fail to support our Justice and Home Affairs Minister, who approved it and exuberantly called it a victory, there is no record of Malta ever getting anything through against the diktats of the European Union.

It goes without saying that we all agree with the General Workers Union and the local Church on their concern regarding workers’ exploitation. But why now, and what drove them to base their missive mostly on illegal immigrants? Don’t they have enough on their hands pointing out and rectifying cases of exploited Maltese workers?

Even Pope Benedict jumped on the bandwagon and called for an effective political solution to deal with the human problems of illegal immigration from Africa to Europe. He went on to encourage countries of origin to take measures to eliminate the causes of illegal immigration and “uproot all forms of criminality related to it”. Dear Benedict, don’t you think that, for starters, if we stopped bombing countries we would have less human beings looking to find a refuge?

No blame sharing

Malta is in no way responsible, politically and morally, to cater for these immigrants. We were never a colonial power, so why should we be constrained to share the burden caused by the robbery and exploitation of past European colonisers? We do not have any moral case against mass deportation in the absence of their responsibility being undertaken by the European States, principally by their ex-colonisers.

The plunder of South America, Africa and Asia was the source of the wealth that created capitalism in Western Europe. Many European nations, like Britain, France, The Netherlands, and so on, are much wealthier than many other ‘Third World countries’ thanks to the century of abuse they inflicted on many peoples around the world, especially in these underdeveloped countries. Europe has a big debt with the world and perhaps it is now time to start by paying up to help these exploited and displaced people.

If these ‘illegals’ are breaking the law, doesn’t it follow that the Maltese government itself is a lawbreaker by abetting these ‘illegals’? If nothing, it must surely be irresponsible to let so many stay here. The government should clamp down on them.

Up till now, the Maltese government has done nothing expect lick the boots of the European Union and evidently agreeing to the sharing of this burden. Had Malta not been dictated to by the Union (?), this problem would not have been beyond the control of the Maltese authorities.

The main criteria for halting illegal immigration should be deterrence, apprehension and removal (possibly deportation). If these people were indeed seeking a better life, it would make more sense to strive for improving conditions in their own country.

“The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security, he does not forget that disorder may come”

Confucius

Joseph M. Cachia

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