Tragic end to an illegal voyage

The reported death of six Chinese youths who were forced overboard by the crew of a speedboat carrying them illegally to Sicily is a classic case of murder. One of the Chinese survivors told the Italian police they were threatened with a gun and made to jump into the sea after being told they were close to shore. In fact they were about 20 kilometres away. No matter how strong a swimmer one is 20 kilometres is a long way and had it not been for a Turkish vessel sailing nearby, the rest could easily have drowned and nothing much would have been known about this tragedy.

It has been known for a long time that many Chinese are coming to Malta on the pretext of learning English at one of the language schools here. It is pertinent to ask whether certain details, such as the actual booking of the language school, the name of the host family or hotel they will be living at during their stay here and whether they actually attend lessons, are checked out both by the immigration officers at the air or sea port and by the education authorities under whose aegis the language schools are run.

There is a monitoring board which oversees these schools and therefore should keep a check on whether these Chinese youths are regularly in class. I am only mentioning Chinese students here as according to various reports there has been an influx of students from China in the past few months.

Is it possible that the authorities were not worried when these same students did not actually leave the country after their visa had expired? The authorities must share the blame for this tragedy if, as very often happens here, a blind eye is turned at any infringement of the law. If nothing happens, then everything is calmly allowed to rest.

When something does go wrong, as in this case, then everyone starts investigating and we start appealing for help from other countries. However, these presumably entered Malta legally and left from here for another country. This time we should have stopped them. It was our sole responsibility to see that once they came here on a legal visa, they should have been looked for when they did not leave the country legally.

Again one asks: Is any record kept of when a visa expires? Is anything done about those who do not leave after it is noticed that they should no longer be here? Is any list issued by the immigration officers to the police to check on the last known address of any illegal immigrant of whatever nationality? Is it only when someone is caught working illegally or is caught in a criminal act that then we read in the newspapers that this person has been charged with being in our country illegally?

We must get our act together. I have no doubt that the police authorities are aware that there are some Maltese citizens, and they cannot be that many, who own or operate powerful speed boats that can cross the channel to Sicily in a couple of hours. Is anything done to keep these owners or operators under proper surveillance? Are the movements of these fast boats monitored especially now that the weather has changed for the better and the seas are calmer? Could these be Italian-owned boats operated by Maltese or could they be Italian boats which cross the channel, pick up their human cargo and then are off at top speed?

Do we have any sea borne radar or do we only have the armed forces' patrol boats which are, at times, much slower than the speed boats used for the illegal transport of people?

This is not the first time that Maltese have been caught taking Chinese, and for that matter citizens of other nationalities, illegally to Sicily. A few months ago, a boat had some sort of engine trouble and was left drifting before the Maltese operator and his Chinese cargo were rescued. This alone should have been an eye opener but no, we do not believe much in enforcement until something actually happens.

It is a hard thing to say but some of our authorities should put their hand on their heart and say mea culpa. Nothing will bring the six Chinese back to life but the search for the speed boat operators should be pursued relentlessly and when they are caught they should be charged with murder.