Just imagine the emotional toll. You save every little bit of money you can, day after day and you go hungry in the process. When you have collected the exorbitant fees that the traffickers demand of you, you buy your passage cross the deserts of East Africa to flee war-torn Eritrea. You leave your family behind, in the hope of making enough money once you get to Europe and find a job. But that is still fantasy – you have to get there alive first.

You finally end up on the North shores of Africa and again you have to pay exorbitant fees for lodging while you wait to be given the signal to get on a boat. If you had a life jacket, it is taken from you and tossed overboard because they want to squeeze more people onto the rickety boat that might fall apart at any given moment.

Once on the boat, you endure days of harsh sun, cramped conditions and dangers such as asphyxia, dehydration, sea sickness, fights and disease. Not only. You have to run the gauntlet of Libyan patrol boats that might shoot at you.

Somehow, you make it to Malta. Once here, you are put into detention while your asylum application is being processed. Once you get the all clear, you struggle to cope with finding work and living in an open centre for immigrants and you finally try to apply to bring your family over. Your application is refused because you are not married. Undeterred, you save so you can marry your partner and the mother of your children back in Sudan and return to Malta to apply for them to join you once more. You are granted the permits, and your wife and child travel to Libya in the hope of finally joining you in Malta. Then, your wife is killed in a traffic accident. Your son, now three, who you have not seen in over two years is still in Libya with an uncle. Your whole world is devastated. That is the story of Tages Gebregzabher. The government of Malta, working with the UNHCR tried to locate the boy, Abel, and found him. Eventually, after negotiations and a special waver, he was brought to Malta on a Medavia flight and was reunited with his father – who he probably does not remember. When he arrived, he was shy, but the scenes soon turned into ones of joy. Even a government official, who realised that Taher lost the helium filled balloon he was going to give his boy was overcome by emotion and got him another one. The two are now reunited and Taher has expressed his wish to bring his other child over and emigrate to the US once he can. It turns out that there is a similar case and the government is again working to bring this child over. This is how it should be done. No children should be parted from their parents. We, as Maltese people, have to duty to facilitate such passages when possible. It is not about political mileage, it is about people. It is about tragedy, love and compassion. It is about life.