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\u00a0\u201cThe EU is not capable of addressing the immigration crisis\u201d<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 Professor Stephen\u00a0Calleya\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe European Union is not\u00a0capable\u00a0of addressing the crisis of illegal immigration. I hope that the incident with the\u00a0Aquarius<\/i>\u00a0forces the European Union to wake up and address the crisis so that we do not have to face similar ridiculous situations. This is to avoid needless suffering by those who are crying out for a better life\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This was stated by\u00a0Professor Stephen\u00a0Calleya, the Director of the\u00a0Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies\u00a0(MEDAC), in reaction to the saga of the migrant aid vessel Aquarius, that ended up making the news on the 9 June when\u00a0it was stranded in international waters outside the coasts of Italy and Malta and\u00a0was not allowed to enter\u00a0any of the two countries\u2019 ports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0vessel,\u00a0operated by Doctors Without Borders, had approximately 630 immigrants on board, among them 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 children and 6 pregnant women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Doctors Without Borders\u00a0had appealed to both Malta and Italy to reconsider their refusal and allow the immigrants to land. They would then be given secure passage using other transport means\u00a0to Spain\u00a0which had responded to the precarious situation by offering a secure port to the vessel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In an interview with Voice of the Workers,\u00a0Professor Stephen\u00a0Calleya\u00a0explained that\u00a0this case has highlighted the sorry state the European Union is in and the serious lack of leadership within all its constituent institutions. \u201cIt appears that the EU institutions in general are showing a lack of interest in any issue that has to do with the Mediterranean\u201d, said Professor\u00a0Calleya, who added that \u201cmuch is being said, there is a great deal of posing for photographs but when it comes to the effectiveness of the European Union, things are going wrong\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He said that this incident evolved in a way that\u00a0put Italy and Malta in the limelight. He said that it is a pity that the phenomenon of immigration in the Mediterranean has been allowed to grow in this way because it has been with us for a number of years. As Malta and Italy are strategically placed for immigrants seeking a better future, the issue always revolves around which country is going to assume responsibility, given that there is no collective commitment within Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Professor\u00a0Calleya\u00a0said that we have now reached\u00a0a point where\u00a0diplomatic relations\u00a0(not only between Malta and Italy but among all the European countries) have become sensitive and complicated. \u201cAt the end of the day I expected that the countries, especially those in the European Union, would come up with common initiatives to address these issues\u201d, said\u00a0Professor\u00a0Calleya.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Asked whether the Maltese Government had acted in line with International Law,\u00a0Professor\u00a0Calleya\u00a0replied that it had. He added that,\u00a0as things stand,\u00a0within the European Union the immigrants are distributed according to the Dublin Convention, that is, they are taken to the nearest port,\u00a0which\u00a0\u201cin my opinion is ridiculous but that is what the Law says\u201d. Therefore, the nearest port has the duty to assume responsibility and, in this case, that responsibility fell to Italy. \u201cIn legal terms, Malta acted according to the law but in other terms there was room for interpretation \u2026 objectively we talk in legal terms and according to the rule of law\u201d, said\u00a0Professor\u00a0Calleya.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the\u00a0meantime\u00a0on the 12 June\u00a0in Palermo, Sicily, 20 regional members of the\u00a0Movimento\u00a0Cinque Stelle walked out of the regional parliament session during an address by the President of Malta Marie Louise\u00a0Coleiro\u00a0Preca. The\u00a0members of the\u00a0Movimento\u00a0Cinque Stelle\u00a0said that they walked out of Parliament in protest against Malta\u2019s position on the migrants\u2019 issue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Professur Stephen Calleya\u00a0commented that this incident highlights how ignorant these deputies are. \u201cEveryone is entitled to their opinion \u2026 but, as I see it, their action was nothing but an expression of ignorance\u201d, said\u00a0Professur Calleya.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the situation of immigration\u00a0in the Mediterranean,\u00a0Professur Calleya\u00a0said that it was evident that this phenomenon was here to stay and he continued to emphasise the\u00a0utter ineffectuality of the European Union, which, has discussed the immigration issue over and over without coming up with adequate solutions that yield results.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He referred to\u00a0past\u00a0discussions\u00a0which yielded a number of proposals particularly the proposal that different countries accept a number of immigrants so that the situation could be better controlled. Malta had, in fact, long been doing this. \u201cIt makes absolutely no sense that there is no common commitment among the member states to share the burden,\u201d said Professor\u00a0Calleya.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to the Director of MEDAC, \u201cthe incident of the\u00a0immigrants aboard the Aquarius will not be the only one this summer as, unfortunately, we can expect to see similar incidents as people will continue to be trafficked by illegally organised groups\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Professor\u00a0Calleya\u00a0ended by saying that if things continue as they are, more and more European citizens will lose not only their faith but also their interest in the European Union. Consequently, European citizens will end up voting for alternative, or populist, parties rather than traditional ones in the European elections.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u201cThe EU is not capable of addressing the immigration crisis\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Professor Stephen\u00a0Calleya\u00a0 \u201cThe European Union is not\u00a0capable\u00a0of addressing the crisis of illegal immigration. I hope that the incident with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1450,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[63],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1449"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1449"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1461,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1449\/revisions\/1461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=1449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Calleya-min.jpg\")
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