St Paul, in his time, was also an irregular migrant to Malta. As the Bible records, he landed here when the ship in which he was being taken to Rome was wrecked in a storm. He was warmly welcomed by the local people and, during his stay, he handed Malta its Christian faith.

Today, nearly 2,000 years later, other irregular migrants are coming ashore here, in their hundreds. Like St Paul, they do not take to the sea to travel to Malta. Their intended destination is the European mainland, where a better life beckons. Unfortunately for them, the forces of nature very often work against them, and they find themselves not in mainland Europe, but on a tiny island that is the southernmost tip of the beacon they wanted to reach.

St Paul came here at a time when the local inhabitants must have barely been able to scratch a living out of the land. Yet, for all the hardships of life then, they did their best to make the Apostle, and those who were swept ashore with him, as comfortable as possible. “The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.” Acts 28:2.

Can it be said that we are doing the same for those who, in their desperation to escape war, disease and hunger, are today finding themselves among us? Anyone seeking the view of organisations such as Amnesty International will learn that we are not. The conditions we are offering, according to Amnesty, are very bad.

The accommodation is crowded and the facilities far from satisfactory. There is much that can be improved but, then again, how far are we to go out of our way to show charity? How far backwards must we bend to help others who are obviously in need of our help? We try to help not only materially when the irregular migrants make land. We help also in saving their lives. Our limited armed forces risk their life to help these people, even while they are still out at sea.

Bigger and richer countries dither about over providing the means to make life a bit better for irregular immigrants. These countries fear, probably correctly, that if they show too much generosity, there will be many, many others who will follow. Can they really be blamed for acting circumspectly? Are we to be so generous that we might be encouraging other irregular migrants to follow their countrymen?

Everyone realises that these hundreds of Africans daring to take to the sea in flimsy craft do so out of a desperate need. Everyone realises it must indeed be a terrible situation that drives a mother to take her children, and very often there are infants too, on such a perilous journey. Hundreds have lost their lives in the attempt, including children. Nothing could be sadder and everyone’s heart must go out to these people.

But surely Europe should see what needs to be done to stop this flow of migration. And stop it in a way that benefits the common man, the multitudes who are seeking to make a better life for themselves in far-off lands.

Africa is rich in resources, so why are its people poor? Why is it that African countries abound in oil, minerals and other riches of nature’s generosity but their people are dying of hunger and disease, if not of war?

And what is the European Union going to do to help Malta deal with this situation? Malta’s

geographical position has often been described as strategic, at the crossroads of the Mediterranean. But in this case, Malta’s location as the southernmost tip of the EU is often only serving as a point of arrival for irregular migrants intending to go elsewhere.

Malta deserves all the help it can get. Some countries have taken a handful of irregular migrants from Malta, but this was only a token gesture and did little to alleviate the problem. The EU, as an organisation and as individual countries, should do much more.