A Syrian man and his four-old-son were among seven Syrians who were flown to Sicily yesterday to be reunited with family members who survived the 11 October Lampedusa tragedy.

The father was brimming with tears at the airport at the prospect of being reunited with his other son, a seven-year-old boy who was plucked out of the sea by Italian search and rescue crews. In the confusion that ensued when the vessel they were on capsized, Maltese and Italian rescue crews did not stop to think about keeping families together, they just wanted to save lives.

In giving an idea, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had told this newspaper that when he called the Maltese rescue co-ordinator, he told him to “get off the phone so we can save people’s lives”. Dr Muscat understood the gravity of the situation immediately and just put the phone down.

But while this small family is being reunited with another little boy, the tragedy of it all still slams home, the man’s wife and two other small children are still missing. They have not been found in Sicily and things point to the fact that they drowned.

International organizations estimate that 1,500 people drown on rickety vessels every year. But the truth is that there are probably a lot more who do not make the risky crossing. Only last week, the world was horrified as a story broke, whereby tens of people died in the Sahara desert as their trucks broke down, trying to make their way to Libya. Migrants do not only die in the sea. They also die just trying to get to the Libyan coast.

The government of Malta and Italy said they are doing their utmost to re-unite families who have survived tragedies, and so they should. It is our duty, as people, to do so.

But things should go one step further. People are sometimes separated when they get to the coast and the boats set off. Sometimes one boat ends up in Malta and sometimes one might make it to Lampedusa, or even Sicily.

Of course, this will open up Pandora’s Box, as people will say that such a system would be abused. Only last week, there was a news feature on the news channel Al Jazeera which chronicled the story of one family from Somalia. They are scattered around Europe. Some have been granted asylum while others are still in detention. But the fact of the matter remains that seven people – a mother, a father and their children, are scattered all over our Continent and the system does not allow them to reunite. Shame on all of us.