On Friday JEF Malta hosted an informative seminar about ‘Irregular Immigration across the Mediterranean’ as part of its campaign for the European Parliament elections ‘This Year, Your Europe,’ which was successfully launched last January.

The session started with an intervention by President Christopher Scicluna who stressed the need to eliminate misconceptions about this highly-debated subject.Subsequently, Dr Derek Lutterbeck Deputy Director of the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies and Holder of the Swiss Chair, intervened with a historical background of immigration in Europe and highlighted the demographic element of this debate, namely that Europe needs an influx of workers in order to remain sustainable.

The climax of the session was a debate between MEP Candidates Kevin Plumpton, Clint Camilleri, Lino Bianco and Raymond Bugeja on the topic, moderated by Dr.Andrew Azzopardi.

Mr Camilleri emphasised that “irregular immigration is not a Maltese problem but a European problem”, a sentiment which was echoed across the board.

Prof Bianco urged the audience to remember that irregular immigration is ultimately a human tragedy, and that this is first and foremost a humanitarian issue.

This sentiment was also echoed by Mr Bugeja who stated that immigration could actually be beneficial to Europe if a fair burden-sharing agreement is put in place and effected.

Finally, Mr Plumpton ended on a strong note stating that “the Government will not deliver on its burden-sharing promise, maintaining that the Prime Minister’s insistence will not deliver any results.”

His closing statement was that one of his aims, if elected, would be to re-examine the mandate of the European Asylum Support Office which has great potential in this field.

The session ended with interventions from the floor, one of which was by MEP Candidate Helga Ellul who insisted that many countries are facing this issue and that immigrants should be integrated as fully as possibly in society.

Finally, a mock, secret, vote was held which resulted in 30% of the audience voting for Kevin Plumpton, with Ray Bugeja and Lino Bianco garnering 26% of the votes each and Clint Camilleri 18%.

Students were given the chance to meet the candidates personally at a reception which was held afterwards. JEF Malta said that it would like to extend its gratitude to the European Parliament Information Office in Malta for its support.

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