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Nationalists urge government to reunite Syrian families
Syrian families separated during 11 October shipwreck yet to be reunited.
21 October 2013, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
1 min read
The Nationalist Party has urged the government to facilitate the reunion of Syrian families separated during the 11 October shipwreck.
The tragedy which occurred in Maltese waters resulted in separation of families where children were taken to Italy and parents to Malta or vice-versa.
"We are informed that several irregular migrants, including children, are still separated from their families," the PN said.
It added that the situation was causing further hardships to the families involved.
Reportedly, irregular migrants were now refusing to apply for asylum as their priority remains reuniting their families.
"The PN urges the government to give priority to these families. The Maltese government must urge the Italian government to speed up the process."
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First of all the tragedy didn't occurred in Maltese Territorial waters but in Maltese SAR area. This makes a lot of difference because the Territorial Water extends to 12 nautical miles, whilst the SAR area extends to more them 130 nautical miles. So, when saying that the tragedy occurred in Maltese waters is wrong. Secondly, Simon Busuttil at an earlier stage, asked the Prime Minister Dr. Joseph Muscat why these immigrants were brought to Malta when the safest port was Lampedusa. This clearly shows to what kind of hypocrisy the Nationalist Party have in asking the Labour Government to unite the families of these people. I'm not saying that this should not be done, because I do wish that these people will be united as soon as possible. I just wanted to point out this fact of how the Nationalist Party will do anything to gain a few political points.
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First of all the tragedy didn't occurred in Maltese Territorial waters but in Maltese SAR area. This makes a lot of difference because the Territorial Water extends to 12 nautical miles, whilst the SAR area extends to more them 130 nautical miles. So, when saying that the tragedy occurred in Maltese waters is wrong. Secondly, Simon Busuttil at an earlier stage, asked the Prime Minister Dr. Joseph Muscat why these immigrants were brought to Malta when the safest port was Lampedusa. This clearly shows to what kind of hypocrisy the Nationalist Party have in asking the Labour Government to unite the families of these people. I'm not saying that this should be done, because I do wish that these people will be united as soon as possible. I just wanted to point out this fact of how the Nationalist Party will do anything to gain a few political points.
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Why is the PN or better still Dr Simon Busuttil urging the Government to speed up and give priority for separated Syrian families to be reunited without further delay? Why does Dr Busuttil not urge the Christian Democrats of the European Union, with whom the PN shares the same ideology and who even enjoy the majority in the EU Parliament ,to press EU Commissioner Cecilia Malstrom to speed up and finalise the reunion of these divided Syrian families?
