timesofmalta.com - Migrant landings plotted on interactive map Page 1 of 2
Tuesday, 1st July 2008 Migrant landings plotted on interactive map Claudia Calleja Most sightings of migrant boats this year have been reported to occur between 30 and 60 nautical miles south of Malta in areas mostly frequented by fishing vessels, according to a new interactive map on the CrimeMalta website. The map reveals patterns of illegal immigrants arriving in Malta and allows the public to click on points to obtain information about individual boat sightings and landings. The map, compiled by criminologist Saviour Formosa using Googlemap technology, shows the locations of 31 boat sightings. Dr Formosa pointed out when contacted that the vast majority of cases were reported by fishing vessels. Only two boats were reported to have been assisted by the EU Frontex agency. The immigrants' mapping is a recent addition to the CrimeMalta website - www.crimemalta.com - created by Dr Formosa who has a PhD in spatio- temporal environmental criminology and lectures at the University of Malta. Dr Formosa explained that, once immigration was such an important topic, he thought to map it out scientifically. He started by mapping sightings this year based on information released by the police and information he obtained through new bulletins and other sources. The new addition to the site, which Dr Formosa has labelled FrontexWatch Malta, includes information on the date and time of arrival of immigrant boats, the coordinates where the boats were seen and where they landed as Sightings and landings this year of illegal well as information regarding the number of people on board, their gender, immigrants in Malta as plotted by the number of children and deaths that reportedly occurred. criminologist Saviour Formosa. Picture has been lifted from www.crimemalta.com. The site, updated regularly, is the fruit of 10 years research during which Dr Formosa analysed Malta's crime data dating back to 1950. The data provide an understanding of crime trends in the Maltese islands. The updated website's Risc (Relative Risk of Spatial Crime) figures track the pattern of reported crime for last year. Figures show that, like last year, the area where crime was reported most was St Julians. Floriana and Valletta moved up to second and third place (from fifth and fourth, respectively, in 2006) followed by Mdina and St Paul's Bay. The localities where crime was reported least were Mtarfa followed by Mqabba, Ikin, Xagħra and Xewkija. Comments
Chris Park (4 hours, 15 minutes ago) Hype and small talk of a mother ship offloading these small cloned boats of migrants is mere specualtion thus far, as neither Interpol nor FRONTEX have any eveidence of such. There are more tangible pointers towards collusion and corruption in the Libyan establishment, and right up the chain of command, rather than a mother ship. Ships hauling migrants have only been reported and tracked back to point of origin on the West Coast of Africa by FRONTEX with successful repatriations. Now that the problem is in the midst of Maltese society, right at the smack of Marsa and other migrant congregating centres, criminologists, the police and remainder of Maltese society need to review matters to avoid problem ghetto style environments like Nice, Marseille, Brixton, or little China on this small rock, which seems the sole annoited sentinel of the EU's southernmost borders!!
Joe Sammut (4 hours, 23 minutes ago) Some folks obviously are less in the know than others to fire from the hip on a 'Rome radar' being able to detect migrant boatloads before anybody else. This idea is wrong: there is no radar in Rome, or Sicily, or elsewhere! Merely more Italian- registered fishing vessels, more Italian navy, coast guard, Guardia di Finanza, and carabinieri assets on the surface patrolling further south than Malta (be it for FRONTEX or for blue-fin tuna fishing quotas conservancy), and not forgetting their air assets with over the horizon forward-looking infra-red (FLIR) capability. Malta has three patrol vessels, of which only one is offhsore to the core. It alone, has clocked more hours of service than its 4 other sisters ships put together which serve in the Italian coastguard.
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Yes, boatloads seems right a term: it's a trafficked human cargo, and treated by the operators like bundles of spuds. If we're now also seeking political correctness in the verbage used for a crime (against humanity if we can say so), then yes 'boatloads' is the right term, not cruise ships or gourmet dish sampling groups on tour.
john fenech (18 hours, 29 minutes ago) Unfortunately a percentage of illegal immigrants leaving the Libyan cost to mainland Europe will land in Malta for several reasons, albeit Malta is not their destination. Illegal immigrants landing has little to do with the Italian donations, in fact three boats were sighted by the AFM planes all the others were assisted either by tug boats or trawlers and two by the EU Frontex agency. At least thanks to Dr. Formosa we have updated detailed information about the illegal immigration influx to our shores.
Alexander Morana (21 hours, 22 minutes ago) And who said that these boats are not dropped off by a mother ship or ships? How can they are not detected once they leave the Libyan shores? Why so close to Malta? Why is it that so many crafts are not detected sooner by the Rome radar or Malta’s coast guard, if these boats start their journey from Libya, a distance of 245 kilometers away? Could it be that the mother ship is detected without attracting any attention and then disappears once the boats are cast a drift?
I don't think one need a PhD to reach such a conclusion?
Daphne Caruana Galizia (21 hours, 32 minutes ago) And can we be a little bit more careful with our choice of words? Sharks and enemy submarines are sighted, not boatloads of human beings.
Daphne Caruana Galizia (21 hours, 33 minutes ago) I can't see the point of this map. Shouldn't it be obvious that the boats all leave from one point and head in a single direction? Oh, well, different folks, different hobbies, I suppose.
Joe Sammut (23 hours, 52 minutes ago) ref. Score: Italy 1- Malta 0. What a load of rubbish! With Malta already trading as much as 70% of its trade with our northern nieghbours, it was only common sense to receive an Offshore Patrol Vessel like theirs in their coast guard fleet, whcih is of a proven design and performance, to the extent that the Maltese version of the AFM was marketed with success by Fincantieri and they managed to sell 4 units of the modified Malta type to the new Iraqi navy, as the ex-Hon. Toni Abela said in parliament. The CRIMEWATCH map lacks alot of data of actual rescues and recoveries if based merely on press and police reports, the latter being so spartan and parsimonious in their cotent, let alone their timeliness! That data needs to be augmented with what the AFM actually have registered on their records and ships' logs. Above all, where are the FRONTEX Patrol assets as promised by Fratttini and friends? Engaging Libya remains crucial, despite it being an oil producing giant. Is summer making Maltese foreign policy sleepy already? Everybody is taking Malta and its people for a ride, when or where are we going to draw a line?
M.Tabone (1 day ago) This map clearly shows that these clandestines were destined to Italy...... but were picked out by Italian "donations" (as part of the Italian Protocol) to the Maltese Army so that the latter will have no more excuses that it has no means to bring them ashore...... Score: Italy 1- Malta 0.
Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Wednesday, July 2, 2008. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.
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