Former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi blasted Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for his “inhumane” treatment of the migrants who arrived in Malta this morning.

“I have lived through worse than this. I know what it means. It is a great weight on your shoulders. It is at that moment that one must rise to the occasion,” Dr Gonzi said to the Prime Minister in Parliament.

“It is a dramatic moment. When a country, not just you, this is not just Joseph Muscat, I say it with respect, this decision is not your decision, this is our decision. You are involving us all in this decision. You are going to drag us down with this absurdity. Shame on us. We should be ashamed as a country,” Dr Gonzi said.

Dr Gonzi questioned why the Prime Minister had not raised these problems during the EU Council meeting he attended recently.

“The government took the decision to send people back tonight. That is the story. This is not a question of bluff. We are talking about people’s lives,” Dr Gonzi said.

He also questioned how the government was not only ready to take an ethically and morally wrong decision, but an illegal one too.

Dr Gonzi said that the migrants had not even been given the chance to seek asylum and argue their case.

“The Prime Minister needs to understand that a decision like this is not just his own, but it reflects on the whole population. It is not only Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who is paying but the political cost, but everyone is. You can pay the political price, but the human price is not negotiable,” Dr Gonzi insisted.

He said that human beings should not be used as a tool to put an issue on the EU’s agenda.  

Dr Gonzi called it absurd that Malta has reached a situation where it is condemed by an international court.