So, despite the buster of "no burden-sharing - no deal!", our leaders have primed the Maltese people for yet another of those weak-kneed cave-ins that have become the trade-mark of this and other administrations before it. Malta's leadership has been backtracking and attempting to justify this about-turn, with the Prime Minister stating recently that "Malta deserved more tangible solidarity from the EU". Begging your pardon Mr Prime Minister, declarations of sympathy for Malta's plight from various entities of the EU have resonated around the bastions since May 1, 2004. But with no tangible action following.

The Plan (Pact) on Illegal Immigration is not a victory, but an embarrassing compromise. Furthermore, with political figures ranging from the Maltese Home Affairs Minister and the Greek Prime Minister, to the Executive Director of Frontex all declaring or admitting that Frontex has been a failure, the Prime Minister stuck by his support for the Frontex deployment, while admitting that this undertaking has not come near to meeting expectations. Meeting expectations? How about a complete waste of EU funds and resources? Frontex has not prevented, but rather unwittingly and unintentionally assisted in more illegal immigrant landings than ever before. The points made recently by the Executive Director of Frontex, linking "criminal investigations" to "search and rescue", may provide a solution to part of the problem. Investigate the illegal immigrant criminals who orchestrate their own "disasters" at sea in order to initiate a rescue effort. This sometimes results in loss of life of the weaker and more vulnerable individuals, so that the stronger ones may survive. Could this then not constitute murder most foul?

Elements of the pact, such as the European Blue Card system will only serve to strip African countries of badly needed talent to help them dig themselves out of the quagmire they find themselves in. It also refers to the labour needs of certain European countries. Seriously, has any country ever come forward and requested relocation of Malta's illegal immigrant population to its own soil for the purpose of supplanting its labour pool?

"Joint repatriation flights" and the "burden-sharing", now accepted as strictly voluntary, have appeared in print as quotes "out of the mouths of Babes" going back several years.

These have been uttered in the context of a diplomatic victory claimed by the government, but which never seem to come to fruition. As for "bilateral agreements between the EU and third countries, and cooperation in the efforts against the trafficking of persons", when will these materialise? Not until the EU acts resolutely through the use of forceful action, such as sanctions against those countries who turn a blind eye to the activities of human trafficking within and from their borders.

A "sheltering Europe" is also a myth, perpetuated by the UNHCR which sees its mission as being that of a relocation agency for the disadvantaged of the world to richer countries.

It operates under a self-serving interpretation of an out-dated mandate for resettling refugees. The final element of the EU Immigration Pact envisaged the creation of a wide-ranging partnership with countries of origin and transit with a view to ensuring synergy between immigration and development.

The EU would be offering third countries opportunities of legal migration for work or study, depending on how far they increased their commitment against illegal immigration.

Other measures would also be adopted to help third-country citizens to repatriate, to the benefit of their own societies.

Third world countries have already strongly condemned this latest EU anti-illegal immigration initiative, as they have the ones that came before it, and for obvious reasons. Governments usually turn their backs on countrymen who dare to leave illegally. They refuse to acknowledge they ever existed.

It is interesting to note that while Malta's two main political parties never once brought up the problem of illegal immigration during their campaigning at the last election, they now appear to be awakening as if from a deep sleep to a problem that has continuously and exponentially plagued Malta since the year 2000! They conveniently left it up to the so-called racists to keep sounding the alarm bells!

The Interior Minister has gone on record to state that "Malta was doing its best to repatriate more migrants".

He tempered this statement by saying that it was not easy, particularly because a large number of migrants came from Somalia! The Minister went on to state that "it was where repatriation could not be made that the new burden-sharing mechanism would come into play.

Whatever happened to the networking and goodwill generated through CHOGM! Kenya, a commonwealth country, borders Somalia. Couldn't Somali illegal immigrants be landed in Kenya and be gently pointed in the direction of their own country's border?

I also submit that the status of those illegal immigrants granted asylum or refugee status immediately following the Eritrean repatriation debacle in 2003 be reviewed, since most approvals by the authorities at that time were granted under extreme duress as a result of the lambasting Malta received from the likes of Amenesty International and the UNHCR.