Malta may have been legally correct in its stance when it insisted this week that a tanker that rescued 102 migrants in Libyan waters should have been brought back to Libyan shores.  But the key word here is ‘may’, since the country directly to our south is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and there is no possibility of applying for asylum – an international legal right.

And by arguing that Libyan ports are safe to return asylum seekers to because a commercial vessel had just departed from one simply reduces the status of irregular migrants to commercial goods. 

From a humanitarian perspective, a perspective that growing swathes of this country appear to be losing sight of very quickly, the country is plumbing the absolute depths of the moral low ground.

Despite any orders that were ignored by the captain of the ship in question, irrespective of whether any Libyan port is a safe port of call for any would-be asylum seeker who had just left that country, and irrespective of arguments against setting precedents, one does not simply leave over 100 people in dire need of terra firma languishing aboard a tanker just outside a country’s territorial waters for days on end by refusing them entry into the country. 

It is undeniably true that for years on end Malta’s pleas for assistance to cope with its disproportionate share of the migrant tide have fallen on deaf ears at EU level, but this is certainly no way to convince anyone to lend a sympathetic ear to this country’s circumstances. 

Malta has accomplished very little with its bravado shown toward these unfortunate souls over recent weeks – from booking planes to forcibly return migrants to Libya, to refusing entry to that tanker and its passengers.

Being a bully with the weak and using them as human bargaining chips is not the behaviour of a progressive, European government – a line that we were sold in the last election. This particularly nasty posturing must be brought to an end forthwith.  If we want to make our arguments heard loud and clear, we must also be able to stand up to scrutiny, an area where we have failed in the past and where we are failing even more miserably in the present.

One makes a convincing argument by keeping the moral high ground, and not by behaving like an outlaw state with no respect for human rights. This latter point has been amplified amply by the European press, especially over this last week. This is not a case of bending over backwards to appease, nor is it a case of sacrificing the national interest to safeguard the country’s international image – it is a case of doing the right thing, a goal that this government is falling miserably short of.

This is not necessarily about how the rest of the world sees us, it is about how we see ourselves. And the fact of the matter is that the rampant nationalism and racism out there on the internet for all to see, such as the horrific flooding of EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström’s Facebook page this week, is utterly disgraceful and has brought shame on this country and on those in this country who do not share those sentiments.

These people are still the minority but they are the ones who make their fanatical voices heard the loudest. Those in this country who still have their moral compass well-calibrated must make their voices heard more.

Whether he likes it or not, the Prime Minister’s excessively aggressive stance on migration has not only brought Malta one step towards becoming a European pariah on the issue, but, worse still, he has sent the country plummeting once again into the dark recesses of xenophobia and racism.

Those extremist elements that had reared their ugly heads years ago when the first waves of irregular migrants began reaching Malta have re-emerged once again, seemingly with the government’s blessing despite the Prime Minister’s attempts to disassociate itself from them. 

It is also unfathomable how Malta allowed Italy to take in the 100 plus migrants that it had left stranded on that tanker. Irrespective of whether the ship should have taken them back to Libya or not, they were just miles from Malta and to make them endure even another minute aboard when they were so close to port was despicable. Malta should have taken them in and raised its arguments only after it did the right thing.

But instead, Malta allowed Italy to take them in – in the process handing Italy, Malta’s ‘frienemy’ when it comes to migration, the moral high ground. This was a monumental blunder on the part of our government, and a decision that we will live to regret.

The feeling is that this new government is merely looking to make its hallmark, to win a major victory with Europe that had eluded the last administration, by coercing it into burden sharing.

That would certainly be a feather in its cap, but if it wants that feather the government must follow the path of dialogue and diplomacy in so doing and not use the safety and lives of human beings as bargaining chips, if it is to retain any sense of dignity and humanity for itself and for the country.