Tag: Malta

Lampedusa death toll expected to rise

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 11th:  Refugees breed ill will on Lampedusa, here.

Update October 9th:  German interior minister—the solution is NOT to allow more in, here.

This is a story you could hardly have missed over the last few days when more than a hundred of mostly African illegal aliens drowned trying to reach the island of Lampedusa in Italy.  It was even reported in my small hometown paper, but I would be remiss in not noting it here since we have written so much over the last five plus years about the boat people trying to get from Africa to Italy or Malta.

Emergency workers among bodies

In fact, at least some of the Syrians now blocking the port of Calais in France say they made the journey across the Mediterranean, landed in Italy and simply traveled northward in Europe unmolested by immigration authorities.

From The Independent:

With 111 bodies recovered from the waters off the Italian island of Lampedusa after a boat carrying 500 African migrants capsized, search and rescue teams had to abandon their efforts amid poor weather conditions.

The scale of the tragedy was evident when a ferry delivered 140 more coffins to the little island as preparations were made for mass funerals at five different sites in Agrigento on the Sicilian mainland. More than 350 people are now feared dead.

Coast Guard captain Floriana Segreto, said: “In total among the living and the dead when have accounted for 266 people. But our work is not finished.” Emergency services said that half of those confirmed dead so far were women.

The disaster occurred early on Thursday morning when a 20m boat carrying migrants mainly from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana got into difficulty less than a mile from the shore of Lampedusa. Someone on board set light to a piece of fabric to attract the attention of nearby ships, but the flames spread, forcing the desperate refugees into the sea.

Vito Fiorino, a Lampedusa resident, said he was the first to come across dozens of migrants scattered in the Mediterranean Sea while he was on an early morning fishing expedition. He told the Associated Press that some of the survivors told him they had been fighting to stay alive for three hours and did not have the strength to grab the life-ring he threw to them. “It was a scene from a film, something you hope never to see in life,” he said.

Read it all.

Photo is from this story at the London Evening Standard, where we hear this:

….the independent UN investigator on the human rights of migrants said the boat wreck highlighted the dangers of harsh measures against people seeking a better life in another country.

I guess what this means is—we can’t beat the criminals so just open the borders world-wide and let them all in!

Malta and Somalia to formalize relations; first step in stopping illegal alien Somalis?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Readers, we have followed the island nation of Malta’s travails for over 5 years.  As a bit of European land closest to North Africa, the country is being swamped by migrant Somalis trying to get to Europe.

To make matters worse, a few years ago, the Bush Administration (egged-on by Malta’s Jesuits) did a foolish (and possibly illegal) thing and began transforming Malta’s illegal alien Somalis into legitimate “refugees” and began airlifting them to your towns.

African young men arriving on Malta looking for a ticket to Europe or America!

Of course, as the word got out, the action only further energized the human trafficking business aimed at Malta.  If you are ambitious, click here, to read our dozens and dozens of posts on poor Malta’s situation.

As international leaders met in NYC last week, Malta’s President sat down with a representative of the new Somali government to discuss formalization of diplomatic relations—a possible first step in deporting Somalis back to their homeland?  (They don’t say that, I’m just wondering).

From the Times of Malta:

A meeting aimed at embarking on diplomatic relations between Malta and Somalia, from where the former received the greatest number of irregular immigrants, has been held at the insistence of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat during his stay in New York for the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Maltese delegation was led by Dr Muscat, that of Somalia by Somali deputy Prime Minister Fawzia Yusuf Adam.

During the meeting, Malta made a formal request for relations to start between the two countries, a request expected to be officially confirmed by the Somali Government in the coming weeks.

This, the Government said, was the first step towards the two sides working together on irregular migration. Tangible methods of how this could be done once relations were embarked upon were discussed.

Dr Muscat said this was an important step because it opened doors to ways and possibilities of addressing the problem.

American readers should be cheering this initiative!

Holy cow!  We took 282 of Malta’s illegal aliens this (2013) fiscal year alone.  There were 257 cases with a total of 282 individuals which means most were single (most likely men).  Check it out!  Map Arrivals by Country Location as of 31 Aug.2013

Cool stats!  You know we can see statistics showing from which countries our readers come—we have had 677 ‘views’ from Malta in the last three months.  Of course, that could mean we have a handful of visitors coming many times, but still it’s encouraging to see how widespread our readership is.

Illegal alien “mother ship” captured off coast of Italy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
A day at the beach in Italy: The bodies of the six drowned Eygptians were laid out on a popular beach in Catania, Sicily’s second city. Photograph: Dario Azzaro/AFP/Getty Images

Reuters has reported that Italian authorities have captured the so-called “mother ship” used recently to ferry Syrians (and North Africans) across the Mediterranean to Europe.  Illegal alien crossings (with a loss of life) have increased dramatically since that Obama Administration-applauded “Arab Spring” got underway in Africa.  The captured traffickers are Egyptians.

From Reuters:

 ROME (Reuters) – Italian authorities have seized a “mother ship” used to traffic illegal migrants across the Mediterranean and picked up about 200 Syrians fleeing the civil war in their homeland, officials said on Thursday.

European Union and Italian patrol boats chased down the fishing boat with a crew of 15 that had been used to ferry the immigrants into international waters near the Sicilian coast, prosecutors and police said.

The vessel’s crew had already transfered the refugees into a smaller boat for the final leg of their voyage. Italian police boats collected 199 migrants, including 64 children, all of whom were Syrian.

The fishing boat was towed back to the port of Catania in Sicily. The seizure of the mother ship was a result of an investigation into the drowning of six migrants off Sicily in August, prosecutors said in a statement.

The smugglers are part of an Egyptian crime group, they said. The exact departure point of the fishing boat was still unknown.

The numbers are growing and countries on the Mediterranean are feeling the crunch—most especially Italy and Malta.

 Almost 9,000 migrants reached Italy by boat between July 1 and August 10, the Interior Ministry said.

In the 12 months up to August 10, more than 24,000 came, compared with more than 17,000 in the same period a year earlier, and almost 25,000 in the 12 months before that, the ministry said.

The photo is from this story at The Guardian.

Malta Today report on migrant survey results sounds elitist

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The story basically says—-If only the uneducated boobs among the public were better informed they wouldn’t fear that their country was being “invaded.” 

Shipment of Syrians (?) arriving on Malta’s shores.*
Nah! No invasion here, nothing to see, move along!

 

Longtime readers know that we have been following the plight of the tiny Mediterranean island nation of Malta as it has been overwhelmed for years with boat people (asking for asylum) from Africa—-most recently the flood is a result of the glorious Arab Spring and the US-supported (US-driven!) ouster of Gaddafi in Libya.

Our interest in Malta is two-fold.  First, as much as I hate the worn-out phrase ‘canary in a coal mine’ that about sums up what Malta represents, and secondly the US State Department (egged on by their Jesuit friends on Malta) is transforming Malta’s illegal aliens by the hundreds into “refugees” destined for your town!

Seems that a major news outlet on Malta—-Malta Today—did a survey and found that shock-of-shocks, the general public is feeling invaded.

Here is a bit of the story:

MaltaToday survey indicates that a majority of respondents (55%) support the pushback policy.  [Go here for some of our coverage last month of the proposed push-back policy.—ed]

The MaltaToday survey held this week reveals that the greatest concern the Maltese people have about migration by ‘boat people’ is the fear of being ‘invaded’ or seeing their country ‘taken over’ by migrants.

The survey indicates that a majority of respondents (55%) support the pushback policy considered by the new Labour government in July, before the European Court of Human Rights stopped any such action. It had already ruled such a policy illegal when practised by Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing government in Italy.

Support for pushbacks is particularly strong among Labour voters and those lacking a tertiary education.

LOL! It is my experience that the less-formally-educated country class (working class) on whole are much smarter when it comes to mass immigration then their “tertiary-educated” and politically-correct fellow citizens.

The photo is from this story, although there is no caption, this must be the boatload of Syrians referred to in the article.

* Correction, a reader has reported this boat actually landed in Sicily.  Malta has only gotten a few Syrians, most arriving there are Africans.

Malta: Tanker stalemate ends with Italy taking the illegal aliens

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Liberian-flagged MT Salamis was kept from docking in Malta for nearly three days after picking up illegal aliens off the coast of Libya.

This is a story I’ve had in my queue for the last few days and didn’t get to because news is hopping all over the world on the asylum-seeker/refugee front.  So this morning I see the crisis has been averted by Italy agreeing to take its passengers—another batch of migrants.  American readers, please continue reading—this story involves you!

Malta told the tanker ‘no way’ were they entering Maltese waters with that cargo.

Here is the story from the Times of Malta:

A stand-off of almost three days ended early this morning when a tanker carrying 102 migrants lifted anchor and headed for Syracuse after having been blocked just outside Maltese waters on Sunday night.

The MT Salamis had rescued the migrants from a boat just 24 miles off Libya and had been heading for Malta when it was stopped from entering Maltese territorial waters. The government said the ship’s master had ignored orders by the Italian and Maltese rescue authorities to return the migrants to Libya.

Last night the government said Italy had accepted to take in the migrants, diffusing the situation after diplomatic contacts between Malta, Italy and Greece.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat thanked Italian Premier Entrico Letta and said his decision would continue to reinforce the good relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, a new group of 86 migrants arrived in Malta this morning after being rescued off the coast.

Visit the Times of Malta for more on this story.

Malta is under-going a boat people crisis as thousands of North African illegal aliens attempt to reach its shores.  The situation is growing worse and there is no doubt in my mind (after nearly 6 years following the Malta mess) that the increasing numbers arriving on the island nation are partially due to the US State Department transforming hundreds of them into “refugees” bound for America in what is surely a perversion of international refugee law.   True asylum seekers are expected to ask for asylum in the first safe country in which they land—-not shop for a country as is apparently also going to be encouraged in Papua New Guinea.

Malta in US propaganda!

Just a reminder that the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIARS) has produced a piece of propaganda using Malta.

I hate to give them any space here with their “Myth Buster” campaign being used in the US at the moment to shame Congress and the public into accepting more refugees and illegal aliens as the Gang of Eight bill progresses in Congress. See my earlier post on their campaign here.

Check out LIARS (formally LIRS, but a reader recently suggested a more appropriate acronym!) hand out implying that Malta is more generous than the US because it “resettles” more refugees per 1,000 sq. km. than any other country.  THESE ARE NOT REFUGEES, THEY ARE ILLEGAL ALIENS and poor Malta is trying to figure out how to stop them from coming and to keep them from staying!

I guess at some point I should go over the whole handout above and show you how LIARS (96% funded by US taxpayers) is twisting the facts on refugees with the help of the hard Left at the Center for American Progress.