'Lanċa ġejja u oħra sejra’ is the name of a traditional song in Maltese about the antics of ferry boat captain on the waterway between Sliema and the Marsamxett side of Valletta. This ferry service was most popular decades ago when public transport was not so diffused and few people owned a private car.

Sliema and Marsamxett are in a sense an epitome of the whole Maltese archipelago, which along the centuries saw many of its natives seek a new life in far away lands while foreigners came over to stay for good. Hence 'lanċa ġejja' (a boat coming, with foreigners) and 'lanċa sejra' (boat going away, with Maltese seeking a new life in a new land).

At times this emigration and immigration was organised and blessed by the powers on the island, but in recent years the arrival of thousands of illegal immigrants on boats adrift in the Mediterranean have put the Maltese government in a tight corner, hardly coping with the strain on the national resources of one of the most densely populated islands in the world.

In the meantime the Maltese people, who earn a good part of their daily bread from the incoming tourists mainly from Europe, are showing signs they are not willing to give the same welcome to the boatloads of dark-skinned boat people.

This feature is an attempt to provide the general public with a better understanding of the many sides of this hot issue. There is much more to the issue than the few words we hear in the news when a boatload of illegal immigrants approaches our shores or is saved from sinking by the Armed Forces of Malta. It's no longer a matter of 'not in my back yard' ...

# produced by MaltaMedia News