Zooming in on the picture (Immigration)

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 atrocious conditions.

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.