Sunday profile

In an interview with ABC Radio in Australia Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi tells Monica Attard that the immigration situation is creating ethnic tension in Malta:

Tonight, a chat with the Prime Minister of Malta, Dr Lawrence Gonzi. He's here to promote trade relations with Australia and to encourage Maltese Australians to sign up for Maltese citizenship. For a small island nation physically cut off from the rest of the European continent, Malta's cultural heritage spreads far and wide. In Australia alone, there are more Maltese than in Malta itself and as Dr Gonzi observes, he runs into his fellow citizens wherever he goes in the world. The newest member of the European Union, Malta is experiencing an illegal immigration problem. It's at a record high and there's a hint also of ethnic tensions that Prime Minister Gonzi finds disturbing. Dr Gonzi also denies there's evidence that Malta is a staging post for terrorists seeking to infiltrate Europe, though the EU is spending millions on bolstering its border controls...

Read the interview transcript