According to the news report UHM expects government to lower energy rates (TMID, 24 March), UHM general secretary Gejtu Vella told his union’s pensioners association that EU countries need to show solidarity with Malta in its illegal immigration problem “in a more concrete manner”. Hear, hear!

Then he added that they needed to stop and think what the situation would have been had Malta not joined the EU.

Is it any wonder we are in such a mess in this country? Mr Vella obviously believes that we would have been worse off without the EU’s aid in this matter. Which is a total mis-read of the situation. If we cannot even see the causes of a situation, how can we ever hope to improve it?

EU membership is good. I am no EU detractor, but the fact is that we get so many illegal immigrants here because the Africans believe that by coming to Malta they would have a chance of making their way to Europe, Malta being an EU country. If Malta had not joined the EU, they would not come here. They would avoid us like the plague.

It is not Malta which attracts them, but the chances of getting to another EU country, by coming to Malta. They see crowded Malta as a staging post, conveniently close to Africa, though not so close that many of them do not die in their bid to cross over. If Mr Vella can’t see that, I don’t know what he can see.

J. Bartolo

Valletta.