After almost a week of turbulence, both metereological and political, the 629 who were saved from raging seas off the coast of Libya are now safe in Spain.

The world, which followed their dramatic salvation with trepidation, now breathes a sigh of thanksgiving.

This shipload of human beings has been saved from a watery tomb or from being sent back to Libya’s notorious prisons.

It will only be the incurably optimists who will believe that’s the end of the matter.

There will be others. Even as we write there is unconfirmed news of other ships with boatloads of asylum seekers ‘somewhere out there’. Neither the prospect of death at sea nor the increasing opposition by countries such as Italy have dissuaded migrants from undertaking the dangerous sea crossing.

It is easy to see why the mass of migrants who have made it to Italy’s shores have so inflamed public opinion as to dominate the recent election and put in place the most xenophobic government in recent years. The streets of Rome in particular and the southern countryside in general have come to resemble a Third World marketplace. And Italian media highlight every crime that is carried out by migrants.

The new Italian government will surely not be content with the solution to just one ship of migrants. There will be others – both ships and migrants.

One can also forecast that Italian pressures on Malta will continue and may get exacerbated too. We saw last week the disdain and superiority complex with which Matteo Salvini, the Italian deputy prime minister and leader of the League (one of the two parties in the governing coalition) treated Malta.

So far, Malta has responded with public statements and with a phone call between the two prime ministers. There does not seem to have been any effort to meet and discuss the issue – maybe because the two sides know they can never agree. Italy wants Malta to take on more refugees. Malta stands by international law and takes only those in danger and which can be saved by its small navy.

Nor is this the only spat on Italy’s hands. The new government, like its predecessor, wants burden sharing to be spread between all EU member states. Many, like Hungary and Austria reply with a firm No. There does not seem to be any solution, even if Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has admitted Italy is carrying too heavy a burden.

The stage now seems set for a confrontation at the next EU Council later this month which will be the new government’s first test case. What will Malta do? It is clear Malta may not be able to duck its head and hope the others forget about it.

Both Malta and Italy and the other EU Member States as well, must realize there is no simple solution to the migrants problem. The EU is not going, nor should it, to simply shut the borders as the Balkans have done, for instance. These are people on high seas, facing the risk of drowning and every country is duty bound to save people in peril, as are passing ships etc.

Nor does the idea of organizing holding centres in African countries seem a viable proposition, for all that Macron and Conte supported it last week. And it is not just a question of saving people at sea: there are the many thousands who somehow have made their way to Italy and Europe and who have not been vetted and examined.

Prime Minister Muscat must make the case for Malta at the summit: Malta’s way of processing migrants – long detention, minute examination, etc – is the right way. The migrants may grumble – as they do – but to this one must add a concerted effort to help them with training and education and to keep them under constant observation until they fully integrate. None of the other EU members do that (and we, admittedly, don’t do it all that well) but if that becomes the accepted policy, we may have found a way to turn the challenge into an opportunity.