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MT 8 July 2018

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19 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 JULY 2018 Forcing HSBC's hand OUR three registered letters to HSBC Bank Malta plc's CEO (An- drew Beane) and three emails to his Executive Assistant had remained unanswered for over four months, but finally elicited a partial indirect response by registered mail, which we received last Friday. This only came about following the additional pres- sure which we were constrained to apply, by exposing HSBC's unjustifi- able tardiness, in practically all last 24 June's Sunday local newspapers and we take this opportunity to thank the media concerned for its co-operation in this regard. Given these circumstances, this same CEO's interview by Vanessa Macdonald, co-incidentally published in the Sunday Times's 24 June issue, struck a discordant note, particularly Beane's statement that "the financial services industry, if you pare it back to its foundations, is built on trust, between customers and the bank", which did not impress us at all, con- sidering his incredible sluggishness, that belied this very "dogma of recip- rocal trust" he publicly subscribes to. HSBC never misses an opportunity to try, in its own words, to portray itself as a provider of an "exceptional customer experience". Deeds do, however, speak much louder than words and from our point of view, HSBC has failed this reality check miserably, by betraying our trust. How can a long-standing HSBC customer, having an impeccable bank account operation track re- cord stretching over 35 years, pos- sibly continue to trust HSBC, which elected to ignore our communica- tions and unreasonably, abusively and illegally had been tacitly refusing to release our security for more than four months, notwithstanding the undeniable fact that we no longer enjoyed (or required) any facilities from HSBC? We do, nonetheless, accept HSBC's Charles Galea's very belated, just received apology, presumably made on behalf of his CEO, Andrew Beane, who understandably, must have been too busy to respond directly during all this time. We do remind him, however, that the other issues and complaints we had raised in our initial registered letter addressed to him personally last February, have to date remained unaddressed and we are obviously still entitled and expect the required adequate response from HSBC. It goes without saying that your readers will draw their own conclu- sions from all this. Jean-Pierre Azzopardi Managing Director Universal Publicity Services Ltd. When an 'asylum seeker' is not an 'asylum seeker' IT may perhaps be a bit much to expect John citizen to be familiar with the many terms bandied about in the migration debate, but one might be forgiven for ex- pecting somewhat better from those who perceive themselves as being a cut above the hoi-polloi, or common folk whose opinions they may be seeking to 'influ- ence' via their scribblings. It is nothing short of irresponsible that some of the contributors to MaltaToday should completely fail to provide any insight into the underlying characteristics of the human traffic between Africa and Europe. I call it 'being irresponsible' be- cause failing to distinguish between genu- ine refugees and the far more numerous economic migrants seeking passage to the northern shores of the Mediterranean constitutes a considerable disservice to the first, namely those who according to the UN Refugee Convention have fled their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution, war or violence. According to a May 2017 publication by the World Food Programme, Syrian and Afghan refugees would seem to over- whelmingly move as families. Not only are they more or less equally divided by sex but nearly half of them are children. By way of contrast, the vast majority of people crossing over from North Af- rica are single men while 14 per cent are women. As regards origin, a 2017 report from the European Commission's Eu- ropean Political Strategy Centre, claims that "some 70% come from countries or regions not suffering from violent con- flicts or oppressive regimes [and] as a result, the asylum system is overloaded with claims of people who are not seeking protection but rather an improvement of their – often dire – living conditions." Given this scenario, the so-called search and rescue operations between North Africa and Southern Europe have to be recognised for what they truly are, namely the final leg of a complex and highly prof- itable human trafficking racket of indi- viduals wealthy enough to have invested thousands in what is basically an econom- ic decision. As a 24 December 2016 article in The Economist entitled 'The beautiful south' pointed out: "Truly poor people rarely migrate to rich countries. Instead they go to other poor countries – in huge numbers." Other poor countries, one might add, which are closer at hand. With Africa set for a fourfold increase in popu- lation over the next few decades which will see its share of total world population trebling from 13% to 36%, it seems to me that Europe is going to have to completely rewrite its Rules of Engagement as regards those who would enter its frontiers ille- gally, giving particular attention to those who facilitate their entry. Carmel Vassallo Sliema Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications

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