Wet Mediterranean doors

Africans and more 'rap on wet Mediterranean doors', Camelia Paraschiv in Bucharest writes in CafeBabel.com:

..With 400, 000 inhabitants and one of the highest population densities in the world (with 1, 271 people per square kilometres, it comes seventh in the world), Malta has received about 5, 000 illegal immigrants since 2000. More than 1, 000 arrived since the beginning of 2007, a figure that is continuously on the rise. They come through the same Libyan traffic networks, but instead of reaching their intended destination in Italy, they mistakenly dock on Maltese shores, or shipwreck in Maltese waters.

Malta’s reaction to a lack of funds and EU support has been to develop a reluctant policy of refusal to rescue shipwrecked illegal immigrants when they're not in Maltese waters. This has led to shocking treatment (or lack thereof) of immigrants by the authorities. For example, 27 ship-wrecked immigrants were found clinging to a Maltese-owned tuna pen on 23 June, 60 miles from Libya. They were denied rescue by the Maltese authorities for three days, and finally an Italian boat intervened in their favour. In a similar case a week earlier, Malta did not take responsibility for 51 Africans ship-wrecked in their waters, and this time it was a Spanish trailer that finally came to their rescue...

'Not another Nordic Malta - yet'