The Great Southern Migration

I get email news from the Times of Malta just for something different, and came across this article about a problem many Americans can relate to: illegal immigration from the South. This seems to be a growing concern for this tiny nation state as well as Europe in general:

In a number of cases, the illegal immigrants are fleeing civil war and persecution in their own countries. The countries in the Horn of Africa - Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia - have been cursed by tribal conflicts and ongoing armed clashes and civil wars. Somalia is in a state of anarchy, after the fall of the dictator Siad Barre. All three happen to be former Italian colonies, or were under Italian occupation, so it is no wonder that many of those fleeing them want to go to Italy, where a large number of their compatriots are already settled.

The majority of illegal immigrants, however, are economic refugees. They want to flee the grinding poverty, the famine and other natural calamities which have scourged their homelands. To do this they are prepared to pay any price, make any sacrifice, including facing death while crossing the desert frontier into Libya and the sea journey to Europe aboard ramshackle boats.