The arrival of St Paul

I have lately been reading in various newspapers reports about the problems with illegal immigrants. Mention of St Paul was also made, referring to the Apostle as "the most famous illegal immigrant".

This is a blatant bit of deliberate misinformation. The facts are as follows:

St Paul, when arrested by the Romans on the request of the Jewish authorities for preaching the new Christian message, insisted that as a Roman citizen he should be tried in front of Caesar.

The Roman authorities in Palestine had no option but to put St Paul on the first legal boat out of the region and on to Rome still under arrest.

The boat was also carrying exports to Rome. Malta, then, was part of the Roman Empire governed by Publius. Therefore, when the boat with St Paul on it was shipwrecked in Malta, the then Maltese, also being Roman citizens, were giving succour and help to one of their own. St Paul was definitely no illegal immigrant as his boat was a Roman legal vessel and he was not on his way to Malta posing as a refugee.

Illegal immigrants arrive on this island and other places in the world in boats bought from mostly human traffickers with cash most probably stolen from their own families.

The Maltese have a proud history of migration to all parts of the world. Most migrated for economic reasons. Some for adventure. We Maltese never imposed ourselves on anyone. The most important aspect of Maltese emigration is that we always did it legally. We applied, were physically tested for diseases and had to wait for approval. When we arrived in our chosen land we assimilated, went to work and now have second and third generations who are proudly serving in governments and own their own businesses.

Enough said. Everyone should leave the AFM and the police force alone. We should all know they are doing a thankless job for which they were never trained.