Legal as against illegal migration

I refer to the letter by David Camilleri (September 5).

His presumption that illegal refugees are mistreated and hated because they are different to the people of the host country (Malta) is entirely inaccurate.

He went further to ask how would the Maltese feel if their kin were being mistreated because we were different to the people of the host country?

It is true that we stood out because of our accent and skin tone but as time went by we became more accepted by our host country. We became more accepted most of all because we were legal immigrants.

We didn't pay criminals who deal in human cargo to smuggle us illegally to our country of destination wherever that country might be (in my case Australia).

We had to abide by strict regulations under the Immigration Act of each perspective country.

We had to be free of disease, criminal record and of good character.

We were also migrating to countries which, unlike Malta, could absorb millions of people without being detrimental to the local inhabitants and to the environment. We were invited by our host country.

The question asked by the writer - what if all 1.5 million of us came back to Malta - is far too empty to contemplate. And to compare the Maltese detention centres to concentration camps is slanderous, scandalous and an insult to the Maltese authorities and to the citizens. The writer must think before he puts pen to paper.

The suggestion that the Maltese have an inferiority complex with regard to the people of the north and feel superior to people from the south is again another insult to every Maltese living in Malta and abroad. On the contrary, it is the writer who exhibits an inferiority complex.

In answer to the last paragraph, there is nothing wrong with our education, we are not racists for protecting our borders.

If Malta insists in ignoring the "illegal refugees' problem" it will be at its own peril and it will be against the welfare and well being of future Maltese generations.