This year has been markedly quiet when it comes to arrivals of illegal immigrants on our shores.
People who arrived here over the past few years will do anything to get away from Malta – a place they see as a closed shop with no opportunities.
One only has to look at court records to see that many immigrants have tried to leave the country with forged documents, by boat, by plane… any way possible.
More often than not, they are caught at the other end and are sent back to Malta, but it does reinforce the perception that these people never wanted to come to Malta in the first place, and moreover, they do not want to stay in Malta.
But, after a hiatus of many months, the Armed Forces of Malta was involved in the rescue of 28 such immigrants from a dinghy over the weekend. The story was the same as it always is, the dinghy began taking on water and the migrants called for assistance. The AFM sent an air asset to find them and a patrol boat was sent out to rescue them.
When one considers that just a couple of years ago we had already rescued many hundreds of immigrants by this time of the year speaks volumes – not as many people are willing to take the journey.
There are differing schools of thought as to why – rougher seas, the recession; but by far the most important development was the agreement which Italy signed with Libya to finally get the Libyan authorities to police their borders. In fact, during the operation this weekend, Libya sent a motor launch out itself and took 27 of the migrants back to Libyan shores.
It seems that the agreement which was reached between Libya and Italy has extended to Malta by ‘default’ and thankfully, the burden is much less than it was in 2007 and 2008 when the sheer number of arrivals had stretched resources to the limit.
Of course, when one puts it all into context, we can see the utter futility of Frontex missions from the past few years. What was needed was political will from the Libyan side to actually address the problem at source, in the sense of preventing boats from leaving harbour – or patrolling Libyan coastal waters to make sure that the boats did not leave for other shores.
The tide will never be stemmed completely. There will be those who are more than willing to risk it all and head for a new life in Europe. The fact that a woman risked bringing a young baby with her on the voyage speaks volumes. Days on end on the high seas, blistering heat, the possibility of drowning, heat exhaustion, dehydration and the uncertainty which looms even if they do make it to another country just goes to show what these people are prepared to risk.
Malta, of course, must continue to do its duty in rescuing those who find themselves in difficulty at sea but we must also ensure that we become an effective third prong by working alongside with the Italians and the Libyans. It is Libya which holds the key to managing the problem and we must continue to use our good relations with the country at every level possible.