My dear friend,
Believe me that I’m writing this with a heavy heart. Definitely, I wouldn’t have written it had I any suspicion that you were in any way involved in the arrogant disturbances and rioting taking place regularly by groups of your colleagues. By their ungrateful and disorderly attitudes they are continually disturbing the public peace and decorum. What do they expect to get by hurling back food at their servers or burning their mattresses and breaking doors and windows – this is just to mention a few cases. They wouldn’t have done this in their country and lived to tell it. They must realise that they are playing with fire and must be careful not to overdo it!
The Maltese are quite a generous and hospitable people and would willingly accept to feed and clothe you, in spite of this being hardly bearable with our meagre resources. Local resentment of illegal immigration is constantly increasing in the face of economic slowdown and higher unemployment levels. However, you can be sure that this does not result from any form of discrimination or racism but rather through apprehension and anger – mostly anger against the European countries, especially ex-colonialists, who besides doing nothing to alleviate the sufferings they have caused, are still continually taking every possible opportunity to advance their imperial ambitions at the expense of African people.
Let me begin by confessing that I do not believe that it is fair on you for us to keep you here away from your country and separated from your family. You deserve better. In all probability, when you waved goodbye to your family and friends and sought other countries’ shores, you never imagined of ending up in such difficult circumstances here.
While in other much bigger and industrialised countries, your kind of immigration may be considered good for the economy, here in Malta it’s diagonally opposite in so many different ways.
We are not a dispatching depot for migrants, thus encouraging unwanted illegal immigration to Europe. Being such a small island, Malta cannot permit itself being turned into a regional refugee camp. You must understand that you are considered as an illegal immigrant and consequently debarred from immigrating to any other EU country. The EU has no immigration policy, except for the exploitative and scandalous Blue Card scheme, or rather tactical ploy.
The main objective of the EU Blue Card is to meet the European Union’s market demand for labour. The scheme is a new form of exploitation and discrimination as the EU countries will take only the cream of the crop while depriving under-developed countries of qualified and skilled workers. However, although on the excuse of protecting migrants from exploitation, there is grave concern on its impact on the brain-drain on non-EU countries, especially African. There are no options to mitigate the effects of large scale departures of skilled African professionals, as there are no concrete policies to address skill shortages caused by this brain-drain. This is what you should be protesting against, my dear friend!
Blame the so-called civilized societies for keeping a country rich in resources, poor in an abused population, although it wouldn’t be fair to blame only foreigners for this human tragedy as there often is a collusion between foreigners’ greed and local corruption and incompetence. You must well know whose role it is in establishing the corrupt regimes that govern Africa today. Why does nobody refer to the part that European and US companies play in feeding the Swiss bank accounts of African corrupt politicians and generals?
The present stream of migration across the Mediterranean sees its roots in the ugly faces of slavery and colonialism, past and present. Today, as a continent, Africa is still enslaved because of its vast natural resources. You must be aware how development experts are concerned that the combination of soft United Nations regulations, inefficient legal systems and compliant local elites are aiding foreign land grabs in Africa!
And finally, my dear friend, can you in all sincerity blame us for being suspicious of the real intentions of any of your companions? Could it not be possible that any of these illegal immigrants might embed themselves in our country in support of a terrorist operation in the future? Such is the way that so-called ‘sleepers’ operate. Please consider that nobody knows how many illegal immigrants use stolen identities. If one cannot prove his identity, what kind of help does he expect?
Much bigger and richer European countries are adopting other measures, albeit some of which are considered harsh but definitely intended to protect their people. They are not permitting any illegal immigrants to land on their shores, intercepting them and returning them to their place of departure, mainly Libya. If they manage to land, they are immediately placed in deportation centres, not much different from ‘concentration camps’. You well know that the Berlusconi government promised to pay Libya five billion dollars over the next 25 years as compensation for the colonial period. Why not ask the British government to apologise for African slavery and colonialism? Isn’t there still a case for Britain to pay reparations to African nations? After all, the wealth of the West was built on Africa’s exploitation!
My friend, you have landed in the wrong country! We were never your colonisers – on the contrary, we were likewise colonised by other powers.
Till next time!
Joseph M. Cachia
Vittoriosa