The U.S. faces less complications to deport some of those who enter its borders illegally because these people generally originate from Central and South America as opposed to, say, Somalia or the Sudan. If a would-be immigrant in the U.S. claims refugee status, he or she can only be deported after all legal options have been exhausted.

And how would you establish where they’re coming from? You can’t look at their passport and you can’t ask them…

I disagree with your comments. Eastern European women suffer from another sort of prejudice; they are automatically labelled as working whores. I guess it’s the insular mentality of people who think that the world revolves around this tiny piece of rock.

[Daphne – Yes, that’s why the ‘great excitement’, given that most of the people writing these comments appear to be men, with the exception of the famous Louise Vella and Joanne Micallef.]

You’re not the first person to say something like that. Yet no one has ever carried out such a cunning plan. One wonders why.

[Daphne – Bulgarians and Poles have every right to be here. They are EU citizens. Russians need a visa and a permit.]

What do we do? Pick up 2000 and send 10 home. I’m sure many Africans realise their chances of living in Europe are pretty good, so they take the risk. After all I’m sure these human traffickers like “drug pushers” push them into thinking they’re going to a land of milk and honey.

So does it shock you that there was an email going around with photos of a dead man who was caught floating around Malta? He was an African, probably thrown off board for some ridiculous reason and a baby could tell he was in the sea for weeks if not months with the state he was in. Can you imagine how many of them just get thrown off right in the middle of a journey?

A pregnant women getting sick…vomiting in confined spaces… this would count as a liability; they don’t care if she paid more or as much as the others or if she’s carrying a kid. They’d throw her off.

The Mediterranean sea is a graveyard. We need not condemn them to drowning to know this. I don’t want anybody to die, but fact of the matter is, by taking them in we’re indirectly encouraging this shameful business & responsible for those people who now grace the depths of the sea. Desperation can only take you so far and for a thousand people a year, it might not be worth the risk.

My suggestion is simple, if the illegal immigrants do not qualify as refugees, they should be transported back safely on a plane. It would cost us less and it would make people think twice before making a deal with these criminals. (if they do not qualify as refugees, then they’ve got nobody to run from).

Daphne, so don’t you agree that anybody who takes drugs fund criminals? Allowing everybody entry, is like buying kilos of coke, because thats how much its ‘worth’ to them. The cultural implications are the least of our problems. What if these human traffickers decide to expand their business? They certainly know how to jump at opportunities and a bunch of disillusioned, disappointed, mistreated, jobless young men with no future is one hell of an opportunity.

I don’t think so. I happen to have a good sense of hearing (and listening) and I hear quite often people in various social circles and of varying ages, complaining about these immigrants. Obviously the media has been insidiously engineered to dish out the same soup, over and over again, giving a false sense of security to the nation.

Humans like most other mammals, are territorial species and instinctively humans feel threatened when someone or something enters their space. This sense of territory is even more heightened in Malta, which is a very small territory supporting 400,000 people. This number is already too much for such a small island with or without immigrants which continue to add to the load. Malta’s population should be no more than 100,000 for ecological and social harmony to be maintained. On the other hand there are vast and wide empty spaces such as Mongolia, the Sahara Desert and Australia. Any place can be made habitable given the proper care and dedication. Why not send them to such empty, peaceful places?

With regards to tax contributions to immigrants. As if it is not enough with providing them with free sanitary services, schooling, housing (yes housing!) and a load of other benefits. I think I might just hire a boat, go 40 miles off Malta, throw away my passport, punch a hole in the hull and send a distress call to the AFM. And voila! I’m entitled to all those benefits.

These immigrants should be helped in their own country and not here. If there are so many good hearted people willing to help them, why don’t they volunteer to go to Somalia or Nigeria to help these poor souls? Where is America when we need her? Okay, America has money to buy nuclear weapons for Israel but its funds dry up with respect to Africa. I’m sorry, but this situation is clearly hypocritical. I cannot accept the fact that we’re being hoodwinked by people who speak in favour of human rights and yet are willing pay for nuclear weapons.