Malta, like Sicily and Gibraltar and other areas within reach of the African continent are besieged with arrivals of every kind. They are bursting at the seams with people they do not know what to do with.
Compassion has reached its exhaustion point. The rope, if there is one, is about to snap. The willingness to be humane is turning into desperation, as the throngs of poor and destitute Africans keeps turning up on their shores. There is nowhere for these people to go. There are no jobs for them. Their destiny is to become for many a ward of the state, whichever state they end up in. That, in a continent that is ailing economically, is something that few states are now able to do.
People in Germany and other countries are starting to turn on the so called 'poverty' immigrants, those immigrants who come because they know that no matter how bad their situation might be after they reach those distant shores, their lot is still significantly improved than if they remained in their own country.
Some are fleeing strife, Somalians, Malians and other Africans who are trying to escape persecution, have nowhere to go. So they often cross the Sahara, and then the treacherous straits that divide Italy or Malta from the African continent. These waters, which seem calm and beautiful, have sank ships since Roman times. It is not better now. Many of the migrants end up dead.
Malta however, is at the breaking point, and is now appealing to the EU community to help it. The appeal was made to defray the costs of hosting so many immigrants in a country the size of Rhode Island. It has, moreover, threatened to start turning migrants away if help is note received.
Sicily for its part, is not faring any better. The Coast Guard there is constantly on the lookout for vessels, trying to avoid disasters such as have happened in the past where entire embarcations have been lost with everyone on board. They too however, and the small island of Lampedusa, have become the clearinghouse for thousands of migrants.
There has to be some logic, if not some order to the quest of the immigrants, and a plan must be drawn by the EU to organize the stream of migrants and make sure they are set on the path of meaningful lives. That said, there is a point of saturation even for the most welcoming nations. Economically, Europe is on the brink, and it can no longer afford to offer asylum to tens of thousands of people.
Source : BBC/ 7.4.13
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