Blood on their hands

It was a poignant piece of street theatre on Tuesday when activists took to the streets of Valletta in a mock trial of a number of European leaders, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat included, over recent deaths in the Mediterranean that NGOs believe they have been prevented had their ships not been confined to port in Malta.

This episode has cast a rather long and ominous shadow over the country that, we are certain, the majority of Maltese do not deserve to have hanging over them and their consciences. The government has this summer all but declared open war on the NGOs plying the Mediterranean to save lives by blocking rescue ships in port, arraigning their captains and banning others from entering. It has even grounded an NGO aircraft used to spot boats in distress.

This all should be unacceptable to so many Maltese who, even if they do not care for what the UN has to say about the matter, would imaginably give the words of the Pope himself some weight. The Maltese government’s actions may be welcomed by some in society, but the moral

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majority is recoiling in horror at the thought of people drowning out there because the government has blocked their would-be rescuers.

This is a stain on the country’s collective conscience, and this is unacceptable too.

We are well and truly back to the initial days of Joseph Muscat’s reign – of pushback threats, Air Malta planes on standby to readily deport newly arrived irregular migrants, and cease and desist orders from Brussels. And in the meantime, the Maltese government’s actions are being protested against not only in Malta, but across Europe and in Germany, one of the country’s core tourism markets, in particular.

If Malta is to keep NGO ships in port and planes at the airport, impounded for all intents and purposes, the least it could do would be to offset their search and rescue lacuna by sending out a couple of our own patrol boats to cover their beat. That way some of the slack could be picked up while Malta figures out what to do with the rescue vessels. And if we were to intervene in a rescue or two in the meantime, it would all be in the interest of good public relations. Malta has, over the summer, engaged in a handful of rescues but if it is to cripple the NGOs seeking to ply the sea looking for migrants to rescue, Malta should certainly act to fill that gap, rather than having its assets in port awaiting a call that it may or, at least according to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as reported on today’s front page, may not choose to answer.

It seems we are failing miserably as a nation when we allow virtually anyone with a million euros and a passing interest in the country to purchase citizenship while we let the penniless die seeking safety and as we arraign captains and block the rescue of people drowning in our backyard.

Is there really a single Maltese national with an inkling of a moral compass that would rather see them at the bottom of the sea than in a reception centre? We are actually asking, this is not a rhetorical question. Holding NGO ships captive in port while the migrants they yearn to save drown at sea is nothing short of abominable.

It has to stop.