This video is an amateur video filmed in the picturesque fishing village of Zurrieq in the south of Malta. It was posted in 2007 and the scenes it depicts are becoming very common in Malta. A group of youngsters, probably waiting for the sun to set while sunbathing, end up being witnesses of yet another landing of a boatload of immigrants who must have set off days before from the North African coast.
The immigrants look disoriented and find it hard to shake off the dizziness which is due to the many days at sea. Once ashore their first aim is to run inland and ditch the boats. The crude comments of the youths only serve to enhance the spine chilling feeling of the scene and moment. A female voice is heard off camera asking “What have they come here for?” in not too kind a tone. One other female wonders whether they are in danger - them being the youths not the immigrants. The guy filming discusses with an off cam friend whether they should go for the engine of the boat that is about to be ditched because it would be such a waste.
At one point a female voice is heard urging the group to call the “whotsitsname” and inform them that a group of “whotstheirnames” have arrived. That’s my best translation from Maltese. She cannot even remember the words army or immigrants. Scenes like this are the beginning of much anger and frustration in the small island of Malta. The swarms of immigrants arriving on boats come rain or shine are the reason of justified and unjustified worry. Politicians grudingly venture into this realm and normally only after being scolded by international organisations for the atrocious conditions in immigrant camps.
Solidarity from fellow European states has been slow in coming. The US has taken on a few of the floods of immigrants. Malta’s catholic shell has long cracked and the words tolerance and solidarity now sound less musical and holy than “send them back” and “crusade“. Will the European parliament elections have immigration on the agenda? Do the candidates have concrete plans on how to use their place in Parliament to get more action… more words from the EU? The Maltese might expect something. The stranglehold of the two main parties on this kind of non-politics seems to promise otherwise.
Meanwhile more boats are arriving.
(14 votes, average: 3.79 out of 5)
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Jacque, where can we see the video yuo are speaking about?
I remember April 2008, when for the first (and only) time I went to visit Marsa’s open refugee centre (it was a part of AEGEE project “Destination: Europe” about the migration)… Everything I saw and heard there seemed incredible! Living just couple km away from Marsa, I never noticed or saw the refugees, but there were hundreds of them, living in incredibly bad conditions and mostly without a job - and still, better than at home…
Illegal imigration is a huge problem in Malta, and sometimes (although not too often) I can read about it even in Latvian newspapers - like couple days ago about a new boat arriving… Pity that all we hear is about new boats arriving, never about the results or actions how to deal with the problem and it’s reasons.
I totally agree with you. I am hopeful that the issue of immigration - illegal immigration - will be raised during the EP elections, because it trully concerns a lot of citizens, even if they admit it or not, in the fear of being called racists. I will shortly write about the situation in Cyprus as well, being a small EU country and facing this emmense problem.
This is not sarcasm: there SHOULD be a youtube video at the top of the post. I can see it. All you need to do is press play. Please tell me if not so I can check settings.
Grazzi! My Firefox has strange security settings, so I didn’t see it. With Internet Explorer everything is fine
Good site man Thank you