This summer, Malta received the highest number of boat people that it has taken in since the phenomenon of irregular migration by sea reared its head.

Hundreds of immigrants – men, pregnant women and children – arrived by the boatload every day. As always, public discontent grew with most of the worry being caused by the huge upward curve in numbers. This presented its own problems – where to house them, how to feed them and how to discourage others from attempting the harrowing journey.

June, July, August and September were particularly bad, with a seeming change of tactic. Rather than using rigid boats, immigrants began to use inflatable dinghies. The arrival of one of these craft (normally accommodating up to 100 people) in a partially submerged state showed just how dangerous they can be – and how determined the immigrants were. In fact, that same voyage (one of many) saw only a handful of immigrants surviving the crossing from North Africa.

It is easy to become detached. Over the past weeks, this newspaper has received numerous press releases about a body being found here, another there and others washing up on the shore. It is clear that these voyages are still taking place, even though the weather has turned.

The result is that people are dying and drowning. But has anyone picked up the issue? Unfortunately not. It seems to be a case of “out of sight – out of mind”. After all, the public is feeling relief because the immigrants are not arriving in the large droves that characterised summer.

But what we must really wake up to is the fact that the problem must be even bigger than anyone can imagine. This is not fantasy. Only a couple of days ago, 97 immigrants were brought to Malta on board a Russian ship that rescued a boatload somewhere in the Mediterranean. If we add this to the tally of bodies that the AFM is coming across almost daily – then we can get a more accurate picture of what we are dealing with.

What is indeed striking is that these people (and let us not forget that they are people) got onto a flimsy dinghy to make the crossing over hundreds of miles of open sea in weather conditions that were atrocious. No doubt, the crossings will stop very soon, as has been the trend of past years, and will resume early in the spring, perhaps March or April.

Till then, the matter will be brushed under the carpet in people’s topic of discussion. That is fair enough and it is the way things go with street conversation, but the issue must remain at the top of the government’s agenda. Inroads have been made this year, but there is more to be done. Next year should see the implementation of at least parts of the common policy adopted, but there is more to do.

Europe’s aim is to discourage migration in itself and so far, the only measure that has been put into practice has been the Frontex patrols which have only had very limited success as a deterrent. Europe has also agreed that the way to stop immigration is to alleviate the problem of poverty in Africa. That is not going to happen any time soon, the introduction of the 1 million Zimbabwean dollar bank note – equivalent of USD10 in a country where the inflation rate is 231 million per cent – is testament to it. We must be prepared for next year. The numbers will not be smaller. More will arrive.