There is in our country a sort of debate, carried on by the English-speaking papers at most, about steps that the authorities have been taking to prepare to repatriate people who should not be in Malta.

Before saying anything else, it is heartening that at last someone is doing something to stem the inflow. For many years the people of this country and their leaders have watched impotently as more and more migrants piled in, by boats, by other means.

We still do not know how many migrants there are in Malta, how many are legal, how many illegal, how many work, how many do not, etc. The question of numbers is central to the question but is simply unobtainable.

There have been a number of issues raising alarm in a largely apathetic public: it was said, but this was later denied, that children have been rounded up and were going to be repatriated. Then that women were being rounded up: again this was denied.

It seems that the persons who have been rounded up came from just one country – Mali, with which the EU has agreed on a repatriation process. Then Xarabank produced a man from Mali who has been in Malta for a number of years, knows Maltese, works and is integrated.

There is a certain inherent injustice in this process since what decides the future of a migrant is the country where he has come from. Such a process willfully forgets that there must have been a motivation fierce enough to get that person to undertake so many difficulties and risks.

Still, as said at the beginning, at last something is being done. We must make sure that the process is fair and just.

Which is why we suggest that the repatriation process must begin with those migrants who are found guilty of crimes, especially crimes of violence. We have had, and still have, quite a number of crimes committed by migrants. Some days go by when all reports from court speak of migrants and not one by a Maltese person. Some crimes have been very violent, with a violent that was not common in Malta.

We add that particularly heinous are crimes of violence committed at home, domestic violence. The story of domestic crime in Malta is a particularly bad one but the introduction of people from different civilisations has made things much worse.  This is even more the case when people obtained residence through fake marriages.

And lastly, another reason for forced repatriation should be in cases where social fraud has been committed. If people are working, then they should benefit from Malta’s social security system, free healthcare etc. But we must not accept that people milk the system without contributing, whether they are Maltese or foreign.

We add that not enough checks are being made and not enough fraud is being uncovered. This goes not just for the National Health Service and the Social Security system but also for other voluntary organisations, such as the Community Chest Fund.

We urge all these providers of funds and help to be certain that they are giving help to those who deserve it.

Only those who do not deserve to be here must be forced out. And if they cannot be sent back to their countries, they must be forced to change and amend their behavior or else pay for their refusal.