A Difficult Week

 

For most observers of Malta's immigration problem, this must have been a somewhat disheartening week, with nearly a hundred illegal immigrants arriving on our shores these past three days, and with the news that plans for EU sea patrols have had to be put off. Libya's cooperation on this issue is also clearly not forthcoming at the moment, and Minister Tonio Borg seems to have been made a fool of, either by the Libyans or by Frattini, depending on whom you believe.

In this context, the silence of Finland, the EU's current president and the host of its borders agency, has been deafening. MEP David Casa's criticism of the Presidency's behaviour in today's Times is, I think, fully justified and should earn him support from all those who want future generations of Maltese to be able to enjoy the same Western freedoms that we enjoy today, without having to make any painful compromises in their own home with communities that do not share their Western values.

While the Council Presidency has shown no apparent interest in our plight, President Barroso has once again attempted to put the issue near the top of the EU's agenda. I have long admired Barroso's policies, both in the economic arena (with the Lisbon Strategy, which he originated as Portuguese Prime Minister and strongly promoted as EU Commission President) and in foreign relations (he is a committed Atlanticist as well as a believer in a new Europe). May the European project have many more such far-sighted politicians and may their efforts meet with success.

On the same day, Ranier Fsadni (whose articles are generally of high quality, and many of whose views I share) attempted his own analysis of the problem on the Times. According to him, opposition to immigration comes from the following groups:

- racists

- old-style nationalists

- those who belong to the indigenous population but are underprivileged

To be fair to him, he does not explicitly exlude the existence of other groups. However, it might have occurred to him that the vast majority of the cabinet and the shadow cabinet, all of whom view illegal immigration as a serious problem, do not fit very well into any of these categories. Nor, I would contend, does the President of the EU Commission. It would probably have been more useful for Mr. Fsadni to debate the issue rather than to limit himself to a pscychological and sociological analysis of those whom he believes hold a view different from his own. However, having decided to take that path, he would have been far more convincing had he attempted a proper analysis, as opposed to a caricature.