Ever since the benevolent and brilliant Tea Party Molly (our former Ambassador to Malta) came up with the scheme of turning illegal immigrants arriving on Malta’s shores into legitimate refugees and giving them airline tickets to your town, I’ve warned that the practice would only increase the flow of Somalis and other Africans to the tiny island of Malta. Sure enough, the EU’s border control agency confirms that today.
Officials from the EU’s border control agency Frontex have warned the Maltese authorities that publicity given to the recent agreements reached with the USA and other countries are being exploited by organised crime in Libya to market Malta as the destination to send asylum seekers and irregular immigrants.
The shocking revelation was reportedly made during a Frontex debriefing meeting held in Caltanisetta in Sicily, where military and governmental officials from EU Member States were given details about the recent Nautilus IV mission held in the Mediterranean during this summer, in a bid to contrast the flow of illegal immigrants.
Senior military sources told MaltaToday that Frontex officials spoke of intelligence that showed how criminals behind the lucrative illegal migration trade were “actually marketing Malta as the right destination to direct migrants,” given that it has now become public that the US is accepting migrants from Malta.
Frontex have reportedly warned the Maltese government that the publicity given to re-settlement agreements for migrants, is being immediately exploited by criminal gangs as the right “marketing tool” just like any travel agent would promote a destination to make more money.
Since the US embassy began its permanent refugee resettlement program in May 2008, over 320 refugees have been resettled to the US. The latest group of refugees were resettled in cities across the United States, including Denver, Atlanta, and Portland.
Just a reminder readers—refugees are supposed to seek asylum in the first country in which they land. Basically what Molly and our State Department have done is set a precedent with this practice in Malta. Legitimate refugees don’t get to arrive in a country and expect to be whisked away to the US, until now that is.
We’ve been writing about Malta for a couple of years. Go here for our archives on the subject.