Malta’s signing onto the United Nation’s Global Compact on Migration was a milestone, landmark moment in the country’s long-running struggle, as a frontline state, for some form of burden sharing.

Malta has experienced the pangs of the migratory phenomenon first hand for well over a decade now. Many times it has been left to deal with the issue singlehandedly, at other times, such as last summer, there was more of a loose, regional coalition of the willing, as it were, who shared some of the burden after negotiations led by our own Prime Minister.

Now what we are looking at is an extremely valuable global approach to the phenomenon, which, at the end of the day, will only serve to help the world, and Malta by obvious default, manage migration in a safe and orderly fashion.

This is a massive step in the right direction.

Malta was among the 164 countries participating in an intergovernmental conference held on 10 and 11 December in Marrakech, Morocco, to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: the first inter- governmentally negotiated agreement.

The compact was drawn up under the auspices of the United Nations to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.

The compact is not legally binding and a core guiding principle of the final text explicitly affirms the sovereign right of states to determine their national migration policy and their prerogative to govern migration within their jurisdiction in accordance with international law.

The agreement is a sort of one-stop-shop to bring together existing, and disparate UN agreements that touch on migration. It is rich in ambitious speech and top officials trumpeted a new ‘network on migration’ and a ‘start-up fund’ linked to the UN migration agency.

In all, the pact outlines 23 objectives for the management of migration at local, national, regional and global levels. It calls for more cross-border cooperation and looks to minimise factors and driving forces that push people into leaving their home countries.

It also calls for migrants to be provided with the proper documentation and identity papers, whilst also advocating the creation of conditions to allow migrants to contribute to sustainable development in all countries, along with cooperation for the safe return and readmission of migrants to their home countries.

The pact is non-binding and it makes it amply clear that there is no stipulation or obligation that a country has to take in a certain number of migrants.

There were, however, some notable absentees from the meeting in Morocco, with the USA, Hungary Italy, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland all having chosen to opt out.  Belgium, meanwhile, saw its governing coalition collapse over the pact but its Prime Minister nevertheless signed it.

The objections to the pact are varied and with criticism that it brings the rights of asylum seekers  and economic migrants closer together being one of the centrepiece complaints by non-signatories and non-supporters.

The compact aims to reduce discrimination toward migrants, collect real data about how people move, broaden the use of government-backed internet portals to help migrants, and give training and education to migrant women, among other things.

It also wants the detention of migrants to be seen only as a measure of last resort.

Defenders note that migrants are people and deserve recognition and defence of their human rights. They have played up the economic benefits to rich countries with aging workforces and to poor countries through remittances of cash by migrants who send money back home.

Opponents often fear an influx of migrants can dilute their countries' character, import poverty or crime, reduce wages and take jobs from citizens.

But for Malta, considering our geographical position and size, this agreement is fundamental, and anyone objecting to it here would no doubt just as soon cut of their nose to spite their own face.