I have my own, possibly skewed or even biased, interpretation of what happened within our people these past days.
Ever since the virus pandemic made it to our shores our total attention was focused on it, especially when cases started to be found and even more when the first deaths occurred.
There is still much information that is still unavailable such as how many people from my town or village have been infected, information partly revealed in the map shown on Thursday.
And we have fortunately not been exposed yet to the horrible reality that is dying by Covid.
The regular 12.30pm from the Superintendent of Public Health soon became the TV show followed by all with a bated breath.
But after some days of this heightened panic and alarm, attention understandably began to pall. And just like a deadly virus we found a far more familiar theme about which we could comfortably revert to our normal type – the partisan bickering tempered with our underlying hatred and xenophobia.
This was occasioned by the decisions by the Italian government first and then by our own to block our ports. I can find no evidence in the Italian media of the angst that spread among sections of our people nor of the violent reaction by the xenophobic majority.
This is the situation at present. The situation inside Libya is getting worse. Some days ago all Tripoli remained for days without water because an armed group wanted to rescue some relatives.
The Haftar forces which were encircling the capital were beaten back by the government forces now being helped by Turkish planes. In return they bombed civilian areas of the capital.
All this has prompted a huge influx of refugees (with more to come if Libyans join the stampede). Geography is what it is and there are now reports the fleeing migrants are being set Valletta on their GPS. Anyway, Malta is nearer than Sicily or Italy.
There is a further factor: the NGO ships have taken to anchor just outside Libyan waters and they thus constitute an open invitation to any would-be migrants.
The situation seems quite clear – the governments of Italy and Malta will not allow them in their harbours. Their arguments are that these ships must take the migrants to their port of origin such as Germany.
That leaves the boat people and deaths have already occurred (where exactly is still not clear, whether in Malta's SAR or not). Other allegations include Italian claims the Maltese forced migrants on to a Libyan fishing vessel to take them back to Libya. Or of a Maltese soldier deliberately damaging the engine of the boat or that Maltese naval units turned a deaf ear to pleas for help.
Claims this was done on Malta’s watch have anguished many, especially on the liberal side while the xenophobes were out and about raging at Peppi Azzopardi for a post defending the migrants. Other persons in the public eye defended the scuttling of migrant boats and hypothesed about a doctor having to decide who should get the last ventilator available – a migrant or a Maltese?
Enter Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo who in a succession of posts usually put up at 5am rather than in an official statement has been trying to infuse some rationality into the whole debate.
His main theme was there are far too many people in Malta and we cannot take in any more. Predictably he was roundly attacked but he had far more positive feedback. This morning (Friday) he went into numbers.
From 2005 till today, 21,858 asylum seekers have come; EU countries have taken 1,738 and the US 3,389. From 2005 to 2012 (ie under PN) 13,070 came, the EU took 670 and the US 1,130. From 2013 till today 8,788 came, the EU took 1,058 and the US 2,259. He does not seem to have factored the unquantified number who came from Italy.
Numbers isn’t everything. To contain the virus, the Maltese authorities closed both the airport and the ports. Why should asylum seekers be the exception? Besides, as we are seeing, it is proving difficult to protect the migrants already here. Further numbers would aggravate the problem.
On the other hand, we are continually fed heart-breaking stories of people dying at sea through lack of water, etc which make us all feel guilty especially if the deaths occurred in 'our' SAR.
Roberta Metsola made a very good speech in the European parliament and ended with a plea to the EU to take the migration crisis along with the virus crisis and the consequent financial crisis. I note from today’s Politico that a meeting has taken place between the foreign ministers of Italy, France and Germany among others and ask if Bartolo was invited and if not why not.
The attention in Italy and the UK has now turned to how and when the lockdown is going to be eased and I note from the questions asked by many reporters at today’s press conference that it is displacing questions about migrants here as well. People are asking if they can take the boat out.
They got short shift from professor Gauci. We are not at the peak yet. And it may also be that instead of one peak we are facing a mountain range with peak after peak.
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