Last week, up to 300 migrants were feared to have drowned after their inflatable dinghies went down in stormy seas off Lampedusa. Since then, the weather has improved and hundreds more were rescued off Lampedusa after they were found to be in distress. At the time of writing, the Armed Forces of Malta were working with the Italian authorities and commercial maritime vessels to rescue the occupants of about 12 boats south of Lampedusa.
Last week, retired Brigadier Martin Xuereb, who heads the MOAS rescue mission, warned that 2015 could be the deadliest year yet. And he is most probably right. As the minutes and hours roll by, Libya is getting ever-closer to becoming a failed state. The Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition have both urged our European allies to act now, before it is too late. No one seems to realise the implications of having a Somalia on our doorstep. Put terror threats aside for a moment.
Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative businesses on earth. We do not have to worry about the prospect of piracy, we have to worry about something which is much worse, and that is the taking over of the human trafficking trade by indiscriminate armed gangs.
Given that Libya’s law and order has almost completely broken down, even the militias are now struggling as they battle armed insurgents affiliated to Islamic State. Italian media has said that Libya seems to be experiencing a mass exodus. It is not yet clear whether Libyans are among those who are fleeing the country.
But if the security situation there gets worse, that is exactly what will happen. The arrivals will no longer be limited to sub-Saharan Africans. The target is always Italy and as we witnessed yesterday, Malta’s Armed Forces will be called on to offer assistance. Woe betide us if boats begin to be launched every day as the tide will just become too much for us to handle without help from the European Union. Once the weather improves, we could begin to see 1,000 people set off from Libya every day. The strain and the burden on our infrastructure would just be too much. The priority is always to save lives, but what are we going to do if our infrastructure just cannot cope anymore? It is not like we have an arsenal that features sizeable ships. We only have a few patrol boats, a few helicopters and a few aircraft.
The world has to act now, Libya is turning into a catastrophe, and in that happening, we are also witnessing a human catastrophe and people drowning in the Mediterranean. Triton will not cut it, the Mediterranean needs help, and fast.