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'Fortress Europe's' evil, racist immigration policy swung into action again yesterday as Italy brought 140 stranded illegals from Africa to Sicily.
This ended a 4 day stand off with the government of Malta over who bears responsibility for giving these people exactly what they want and towing them to EU territory.
Both Malta and the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa are overwhelmed with illegal immigrants from Africa and the Middle East who arrive by sea in decrepit vessels and often have to be rescued.
The BBC has more:
On Monday morning, the first group of about 30 migrants were escorted off the MV Pinar at Porto Empedocle in southern Sicily and put onto buses for processing.
A group of 20 migrants with health problems were evacuated to Lampedusa on Sunday. The remaining refugees were to be brought ashore later on Monday.
Italy's foreign ministry said it had agreed to take them in after the intervention of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who spoke with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Maltese counterpart, Lawrence Gonzi.
The decision was made "exclusively in consideration of the painful humanitarian emergency aboard the cargo ship" and Italy's acceptance of the migrants "must not in any way be understood as a precedent nor as a recognition of Malta's reasons" for refusing them, the ministry said in a statement.
"Malta should have taken them in," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told state television.
"[Its] government has not complied with a European request from Commission President Barroso to respect the rules of search and rescue at sea."
What always amazes me most about a situation like this is two-fold; firstly that so many are convinced we have an overly strict, unfair 'border regime', and secondly that when these people are caught they are given exactly what they want - access to Europe.
If they were taken straight back to Africa each time they were caught with no arguments, then maybe, just maybe, the tide would be stemmed when it began to emerge that we were actually serious.
But no. They know as well as I do that once here the chances of being returned are absolutely minute. They can spend years being 'processed', and even if held in detention centres they are being looked after by the taxpayer.
All legal bills from the countless appeals are again charged to the taxpayer. Obviously word gets back to friends and family - Europe is a rich land where you will be paid and have a lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams - all for nothing.
It's easy to wax lyrical about these immigrants and their rights, and I'm not pretending there are easy answers; but what about the rights of Italians and Maltese not to have their territory overwhelmed with Third World people, behaviour and customs? What about the future of their children?
It seems to me that our current immigration policies reward failure. We reward the failure of Third World governments by simply taking their surplus populations to ease the pressure in failed societies - whilst all the time paying them 'aid' so their populations can burgeon further and the cycle can repeat itself.
It can't go on indefinitely, though; something has to change. It would seem that we have to sit down and come up with an effective policy, no matter how harsh it initially seems - the governments of Africa have made it quite clear they don't intend to solve these problems, and in all honesty are probably happy with the status quo as long as we are naive enough to maintain it.
Tuesday 21 April 2009
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3 comments:
What have countries done historically about invaders? They have repelled them! In this case, that would mean turning their boats away, or perhaps simply sinking them at sea. Why are we so unwilling to do that today? Is it that we cannot see that these people are invaders? They may not come dressed in battle gear, but they are invaders nevertheless. It sounds cruel to think of sinking them at sea, but I can assure you that if they knew that the Italian Air Force would bomb them 50 miles off shore every time one of their boats was spotted, the traffic would definitely slow.
But then, I forget that the EU really wants these folks, by whatever means they arrive! How foolish of me to think in terms of solving the problem.
"If they were taken straight back to Africa each time they were caught with no arguments, then maybe, just maybe, the tide would be stemmed when it began to emerge that we were actually serious"
and they might do something about the appalling culture/s they are running from - but I wouldn't bet on it.
"....but what about the rights of Italians and Maltese not to have their territory overwhelmed with Third World people, behaviour and customs? What about the future of their children?"
Exactly, what about those of us elsewhere who are simply forced to choke down all this. Few governments actually ask anyone what they think about all this, they're never honest and upfront of how much all this is costing us. We can be as humane and just open the gates and all that, but there is always a cost, in culture and in money. No one wants to talk about either. Fortunately for them most people don't care much either, thinking that all the money that is spent on these illegals is just coming from Santa claus or something.
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