….but didn’t let the public know for months!
Longtime readers know that we have followed the story of poor Malta, an island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, that has become the target of human traffickers with their African cargo for years. The problems for Malta were exacerbated during the Bush Administration when the US State Department began transforming illegal aliens, especially Somalis, into refugees and resettling them in the US thus setting up Malta as an even greater magnet for Africans hoping to win the resettlement lottery and get to the US or Europe.
If you want to follow the whole sorry tale, just type Malta into our search function.
Now we see that Switzerland has quietly taken some of the Africans. I was interested to see this line in the story at Malta Today yesterday suggesting that this was not a popular move by the Swiss government:
Although the refugees arrived in Switzerland in April, their presence has not been made public until today.
Here is the gist of the story:
Switzerland has accepted 19 North African refugees from Malta, Berne’s Justice Minister Simonetta Sommeruga told Swiss radio today.
Although the refugees arrived in Switzerland in April, their presence has not been made public until today.
Switzerland’s acceptance of the refugees is part of a European Union program known as ‘Eurema’, whose goal is to distribute North African refugees from Malta among European countries.
Actually I’m reminded of a post I wrote in January of 2011 where some of those arriving on Malta said they didn’t want to go to the US, but rather preferred farther north in Europe where the welfare goodies were better than the US.
Here is a line from that 2011 story:
“When I stayed In Switzerland they gave good house, and good life, good money and good education. Malta is small, they can’t.” [a Somali woman]
So these 19 hit the jackpot. And behind them will be another 19, and another, and another.