I am not at all surprised that the government is in a quandary on the new visa regime with Libya that has come about with Malta’s accession to the common visa policy of the European Union two years ago. I had expressed myself countless times, on behalf of the opposition, on the potential problems that would arise upon the imposition of a visa requirement on Libyan citizens travelling to Malta.
This in view of the obvious consequence that, on the basis of reciprocity at best and as a retaliatory measure at worst, the Libyan government would likewise impose the same condition on Maltese citizens travelling to Libya. This has unavoidably been happening for too long now.
I had grown weary of the government’s assurances, prior to and post accession, that the transition would be as rosy as flowers blossoming in a new spring. Of course, it knew very well that, eventually, it will have had to face the music and music indeed it is facing. But it was politically convenient to play cool at a time when it was necessary to depict the EU as the alpha and the omega of our existence.
Needless to mention, accession was destined to bring about advantages. But it also meant that in other areas where Malta enjoyed privileged relations with third countries, like Libya, that benefited the economy, there would be disadvantages too. The main thrust of government policy up to the last general election was to highlight the advantages and to inexorably deny the cons. But reality has now caught up with it.
After accession, problems came crashing down on the government as soon as the visa was imposed on Libyans and as soon as the Libyans retaliated by imposing the visa on Maltese travelling to Libya. On various occasions, high profile government ministers and nationalist MPs triumphantly announced that the Libyan authorities will eventually ease certain requirements that were making life difficult for Maltese businessmen and workers to travel and stay in Libya.
The Interior Minister, the Foreign Affairs Minister and the chairman of the Permanent Committee on Foreign Affairs of Parliament seemed to be competing on who gets the plaudits first. But till this very day nothing has changed. Read the complaints that regularly flow in from businessmen who are experiencing the reality of the new visa regime between Malta and Libya – they are more than adequate responses to any futile and pathetic ministerial assurance that is now worth tuppence!
Before the last general election, the government pretended that it could enjoy the benefits of accession and retain the privileges it enjoyed prior to accession. But experience is showing that this cannot be the case. This is more than poetic justice as the Labour Party’s former foreign policy alternative used to be described as an impossible attempt at trying to enjoy the benefits of both worlds. There is no more room where to run and to hide.
To make matters worse, the visa problem seems to be intricately connected to the intransigence shown by the Libyan authorities to co-operate with Malta in stemming immigration flows from Libya. Malta has been inundated with irregular migrants for the last couple of years, the majority departing from Libyan ports. It is a fact that Libya is irritated by the visa requirement imposed by Malta in 2004 and as Labour’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Leo Brincat says, it is possible that Libya is turning a cold shoulder to Malta on immigration issues because of the visa requirement. Malta did not negotiate with the EU a derogation or a transitional provision on the visa requirement with Libya notwithstanding the fact that it knew all the way that we share excellent economic ties.
Italy seems to be having better luck with the Libyans on immigration. Indeed while Malta has yet to strike a repatriation deal with Libya for rejected migrants, Italy has succeeded in repatriating hundreds of irregular migrants to Libya on the basis of an unwritten arrangement. That goes a long way to describe the very good relations existing between the two countries.
To add insult to injury, at a time when Malta had to suspend an inter-ministerial meeting in Malta between Malta, Italy and Libya, as it became clearly evident that Libya would not attend, it now appears that the Italians and the Libyans have agreed to bilaterally co-operate in the fight against illegal trafficking of persons from the Libyan mainland with a physical exchange of human and technical resources between the two countries. Although the Italian Ambassador to Malta has denied that such an arrangement includes the famous joint patrols, on the other hand he did confirm that an alternative arrangement is in place. It appears that the Italians have managed to strike a workable deal with the Libyans while Malta seems to have missed the bus again. What has happened to Maltese-Libyan relations since accession?
The government cannot accuse the opposition, and particularly the undersigned, of trying to take political mileage from the difficulties brought about by the new visa regime. Former Finance and Foreign Affairs Minister John Dalli has been warning his companions of the impending dangers in his writings. I am on record in warning the government several times since 1999, in my writings and in official party statements in and outside parliament, of the pitfalls and of the need to look after national interests first. But they had all fallen on deaf ears and what we heard instead was the sweet sound of birds chirping in the promise of a new spring.
Dr Gulia is opposition main spokesman on home affairs