The recent award of €10,000 of Maltese taxpayers' money by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to two Somali illegal migrant women over some hypothetical breach of their human rights, speaks volumes about the misdirected focus or lack of focus on the fundamental issues confronting Europe. From what has been aired publicly, any transgression which might have occurred was purely technical and unintentional and in stark contrast to the deliberate flouting of our immigration and well-founded security requirements by thousands of mostly economic illegal migrants, euphemistically referred to as refugees. This is a case of idealism gone mad.

The eminent British judge Sir Brian Leveson has said "British judges are not bound by the ECHR but may take rulings into consideration", and indeed that principle is now becoming entrenched in Britain. In 2005, the ECHR granted voting rights to prisoners. Britain has simply refused to enforce that ruling and Prime Minister Cameron said "if our Parliament decides prisoners should not get the vote then I think they damn well shouldn't." Malta has every right to be as much a sovereign state in Europe as Britain and follow the same route of electing to take note of certain rulings by the European Court of Human Rights but not necessarily be compelled to abide by them, particularly when such cases are clearly money motivated, publicity seeking and cast Maltese government officials doing a difficult job to the best of their ability as the transgressors.

The unrealistic publicity seeking self-appointed reformists in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), aided and abetted by satellite organisations like the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), are hounding the wrong targets. They seek soft acquiescent small states in the EU like Malta to mount ridiculously unreasonable claims in so-called support of the downtrodden and underprivileged at a time when Christianity in Lebanon has been obliterated, Christians in the Middle East are now butchered on a daily basis and Christians are being pushed to the point of extinction in all of Africa. Wouldn't the time and resources of JRS be more reasonably applied to bring people like the Somali President Sheikh Mohammed to face justice at the International Criminal Court for the wanton murder of Christians in Somalia, or those Islamic senior officers of the Indonesian military for the beheading of Christian schoolgirls on the island of Sulawesi. The list of ongoing Islamic genocide against Christians in Muslim countries is endless but our Jesuits see more sense in applying their resources to the easier task of shaming Malta over some insignificant incident, very possibly caused by a language barrier between Maltese officials doing their duty and illegal migrants.

While it is unquestionably a fact that Malta has derived significant benefits from becoming a member of the EU despite our relative insignificant size or perhaps because of it, the Maltese government should ensure that the sovereignty of our democratically-elected parliament remains supreme and free to exercise the will of the Maltese people with the mandate given to it through properly conducted elections. Britain has shown the way for smaller countries like Malta with their judiciary and executive government refusing to blindly follow every whimsical meandering of a court hijacked by irresponsible do-gooders with little or no sense of rationality. The European Court Of Human Rights with its high minded title has become a Trojan horse for the Strasbourg bully boys to impose their ill-founded exaggerated sense of idealism on countries themselves capable of responsible government and actions without radical reformist interference. This is the same mindset which has now unleashed the hordes of illegal Islamic migrants acting like wild animals in Germany, Sweden, France, Poland, in fact throughout most of the EU. Unthinking radical EU reformists have unleashed an Islamic force in Europe which is poised to spread its cancerous tentacles through our democratic processes and in the fullness of time will threaten to control the levers of the institutions of government by a subtle and slow process but with the unstoppable inexorability of tectonic plates. In fact, it goes beyond that with government-funded organisations like the Dutch Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) showing the way with "Pathways to Power".

To the misguided Jesuits of JRS and other like-minded followers, the writer recommends the writings of Katherine Zoepf of the New York Times among other publications. In her book "Excellent Daughters", she tells the story of Zahra Al Azzo, a 16-year-old girl in Syria who was savagely raped. On reporting the rape she was jailed, paradoxically, for her own safety. Her family subsequently secured her release on the promise of an arranged marriage to her cousin, but once she was out of prison this ravished child was savagely hacked to death by her own brother who was then feted and treated like a hero as the family's honour had been avenged. The ECHR and to a lesser extent JRS spend huge sums of money and resources pursuing opaque esoteric infringements of human rights. The International Criminal Court Of Justice pursues demented 90-year-old former German security guards to put them on trial for their actions or inactions during WW2, but we, as a civilised European society, not only allow and also condone by our inaction this barbaric tsunami of murderous behaviour by Islamic forces, we actually go one step forward and open our doors into Europe; we invite them to integrate so they can vote and we teach them how to become law makers.

Europe opened this Pandora's box without a second hesitation on the immense consequences lying ahead of us, in the future. Europe has now been swamped by millions of young aggressive Islamic males, many of whom have clearly demonstrated by their recent actions that they represent the same lack of decency as the dark caliphate ISIS forces clearly defined by their creative atrocities. Now Europe is trying to stem this massive Islamic tidal wave headed its way by threatening Greece with punitive measures if Greece does not stop the flow of migrants. Not just a classic case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted but a massive volte face, particularly by Germany who just a couple of months ago at the Valletta Summit had imperiously demanded that all member states contribute additional aid funds they could not afford to double the promised financial aid to predominantly Islamic and largely corrupt African governments as a means of stopping illegal migration into Europe. It beggars belief that Europe's leadership is so deep in denial and absolutely bereft of any logical direction.

A. Trevisan