Illegal immigrants or refugees?

A friend of mine (who knows much more than I do about the way things are with illegal immigrant and refugees) wrote me an email pointing out that things are not as bad as I think they are. She also said that Amnesty International has not done much more than simply criticize Malta in terms of the way refugees and illegal immigrants are dealt with.

To be quite honest, I am somewhat confused about all this. Not only is it hard for me to imagine how things are at detention centres in Malta (did you know that there are others besides the one at Hal Far?), sitting here in New York, but I also wish that things went so well in Malta in this regard that none of this would ever need be reported as news.

Here are some of my friend's comments (loosely translated):

"I imagine that your comments are linked to the controversy over the people who came from Eritrea in 2002. They were allegedly tortured after they were repatriated away from Malta. I doubt whether Amnesty International is really following what's going on now in detail with regards to the investigation and evidence being heard by the law courts. [...] Amnesty International criticised Malta's detention policy more than anything else, and this goes beyond what the Refugee Commission does. The refugee commissioner and the entire commission examines each case on an individual basis and the Eritreans were sent back to their country because they voluntarily didn't want to apply for asylum. UNCHR was not opposing their return and they were actually themselves sending people back. [...] People are detained if they are not granted refugee status. They are also detained whilst they await for their appeal decision. And the Refugee Commission does not get involved in the work of the Appeals Board."

Sounds like bureaucracy at its best to me!

Still, I appreciate that my friend has broadened (or should that be sharpened?) my perception of the way things are with non-European people who land in Malta without any intention of going back to the country they originally came from.

Welcome to Europe, have a nice day!

The first substantial amount of illegal immigrants to reach Maltese waters since the country became a full member of the European Union were brought to dry land earlier today. A total of 72 people, most of them men from Somalia, who made it ashore are now housed at the Safi detention centre. They join the 30 other men from Somalia who arrived at the beginning of June.

Malta's refugee policies and procedures with asylum seekers in recent years have already been criticized extensively by Amnesty International. One hopes that these new arrivals will be dealt with in a manner that is more in line with EU regulations.

Meanwhile, it was interesting to note today that Malta has twinned up with The Netherlands to launch a National Focal Point for Drugs and Drug Addiction. This project provides the framework for technical assistance and training. Let's hope it also brings to the fore the fact that there is also a serious problem with the handling of the recreational drug culture, which has been growing and growing in the Maltese Islands for the past 30 odd years. But somehow I doubt that Malta will discriminalize recreational drug use in the same way that The Netherlands did many years ago, even though one of Malta's former Prime Ministers suggested this a few years ago.

Welcome to Europe and have a nice day, indeed.

Silvio De Bono is back!

After an 11-month hiatus, Silvio De Bono is back with his weekly commentary on the MaltaMedia Online Network!

I was just getting ready to blog my comments about the election carnival when I realized that Silvio raises some interesting points about this in his commentary. I don't always agree with what he says, but I really like the way he makes his arguments.

In many ways his commentary is like a blog, but it retains many of the conventional aspects of a radio commentary or a newspaper op-ed. I have a feeling that between the Commentary by Silvio De Bono and this blog we will be encouraging more people to have their say about what's going on around them vis-a-vis Malta during the coming weeks and months.

So, to get things started perhaps I should share my thoughts about the elections now that the major activities related to this event are over. I'm no Basho, but I've decided to do this in a haiku:

Labour makes comeback
People gave PN a clue
Cassola times ten