Even as EU border patrols search for some 70 migrants who went missing near Malta on Aug. 27, the people of the smallest EU state are becoming fed up with rising illegal immigration. The 70 disappeared when they were swept off a flimsy craft which capsized after it left Libya, according to eight fellow travelers who managed to cling onto the vessel long enough to be rescued. It is one of the worst tragedies involving would-be immigrants in the Mediterranean -- yet the Maltese newspaper's online readers' forum offered little, if any, compassion. Instead, anger was directed at the thousands of Africans who attempt to cross the waters to Europe. Readers' rage was also aimed at neighboring Libya, from where most of the would-be immigrants depart, and the European Union, which is perceived as turning a blind eye towards a mounting problem. In the past eight months 2,200 would-be illegal immigrants landed on Malta, the smallest and most densely-populated European Union state. In contrast less than 1,700 arrivals were recorded for the whole of 2007. Given Malta's population of 400,000, it is as if 45,000 people had landed in Germany, Maltese government officials have said.
The 70 disappeared when they were swept off a flimsy craft which capsized after it left Libya, according to eight fellow travelers who managed to cling onto the vessel long enough to be rescued. It is one of the worst tragedies involving would-be immigrants in the Mediterranean -- yet the Maltese newspaper's online readers' forum offered little, if any, compassion.
Instead, anger was directed at the thousands of Africans who attempt to cross the waters to Europe. Readers' rage was also aimed at neighboring Libya, from where most of the would-be immigrants depart, and the European Union, which is perceived as turning a blind eye towards a mounting problem.
In the past eight months 2,200 would-be illegal immigrants landed on Malta, the smallest and most densely-populated European Union state. In contrast less than 1,700 arrivals were recorded for the whole of 2007. Given Malta's population of 400,000, it is as if 45,000 people had landed in Germany, Maltese government officials have said.
How would you size the quotas? To population? To size? To proximity to the immigrants' countries of origin? According to language they speak?
Just like the "we need to nuy gas jointly from Russia" - I want specifics, not generic "we should do this"... In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
And yes, if you like, a common border requiring a common policy requires a centrally funded border coastguard & police.
However, if you're asking me to determine the specifics of that common policy, then I'm gonna take the Obama defence; it's way, way above my pay-grade. keep to the Fen Causeway
It´s not the complaining, it´s the desperate need of the rest of the world next door.
First of all, EU Justice should be investigating the mafias involved and blanking NATO should be finding the reported ´mother ship´ that drops off the boats, instead of covering the USass in Afghanistan, but there doesn´t seem to be enough interest in ´just a southern problem´.
The lives lost are priceless and so are the social costs, but the maintenance, deportation, job creation in the countries of origin, etc. do have a measurable price and I bet non-profits could tell us!
Now that we have the Shame Directive and some countries are willing to pay privateers to ´store´ people up to 18 months, I don´t even want to know how much cheaper it would be to create a job at the source. Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
