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	Latest Day Report

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Monthly 2008 Statistics - dated as at 29th December 2008 (latest landing)

Detailed Information

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For one to get an idea of the distances incurred in his phenomenon in Nautical Miles
(1 nautical mile = 1.852 kilometers))

Central Mediterranean Buffer Zones - 1 to 500 Nautical Miles

Immediate-Malta Buffer Zones - 1 to 100 Nautical Miles

FrontexWatch-Malta is intended to present to the general public an overview of the facts surrounding immigration in the central Mediterranean, initially starting with the Malta-based incidences. Using spatial technology, one can get an overview of the breadth of the phenomenon, which has only started being research very recently in terms of impact on the social, physical and natural environments, the realities facing the northern and southern Mediterranean rims.

Studies such as ESPON's 'Europe in the World' (refer to image below), the European Environment Agency's 'State of the Environment Report', amongst others, have shown that changes are unavoidable and that the Mediterranean has become one of the worst areas for deaths related to transit operations that have a sea-based modus operandi. The studies stress the need for policy makers to prepare for the eventual uptake of the realities that will be faced by all the Mediterranean countries over the next decades when the climatological situation worsens for the source countries, resulting in major movements of the population living in proximity to the coast as inundation, drought and the resultant social upheaval take their toll. The transposition from the current situation of economic migration to one that is based on an issue of eco-refugees must be considered way before it happens.

Only scientific analysis based on factual data can help understand this phenomenon and the FrontexWatch page is intended to serve as the initial step towards this overall goal, building up an extensive information base.

The inclusion of such a service under the CrimeMalta is endemic to the generic situation faced by illegal immigration within its whole context: the issues of trafficking, illegal entry, the resultant deaths and the trans-border multi-lateral agreements/disagreements that could bring about the perpetuation of such phenomena. Taking one issue in isolation defeats the whole concept. The phenomenon becomes a crime once there is an unregulated and unsafe modus operandi. The cause becomes superfluous in terms of the means used to reach the end which is what the public eventually views. Scientific analysis is concerned with the whole process and criminological analysis focuses on the crime-related aspects of the phenomenon throughout its life-cycle.

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Deaths of Immigrants at the European Boarders; 1993-2006 (ESPON)

Source: ESPON, (2008), ESPON Europe in the World Report

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A BBC Review

An extensive journamistic overview of the phenomenon on a wider scale can be found at the BBC site:

View the BBC site maps on the migration flows reviewing flows and migration information.

Image copyrighted by the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6228236.stm