The issue of migration was firmly on the agenda of the European Union as a committee meeting featured an impassioned speech by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, telling EU nations that “people are dying on our doorstep”.

Dr Gonzi and MEP Roberta Metsola both highlighted the fact that migration was not only a problem that affected the South of Europe, but the whole of the continent, urging more countries to help in terms of search and rescue, as well as resettlement.

The committee meeting was organised against the backdrop of a situation where Italy, with the Armed Forces of Malta’s help, had rescued some 7,000 migrants at sea off the coast of Libya in the past days.

Human traffickers have resorted to ever more dastardly tactics in their efforts to make a buck, and one of those is to buy decommissioned merchant vessels and lock them on a course towards Europe. We have also seen how hundreds of people are packed aboard dinghies and sent towards Europe. Many times, the ‘vessels’ flounder after the engines pack up and the dinghy is battered by the high seas.  We have already seen repeated surges when the weather was favourable over Winter. Now, it is Spring and we have seen another massive surge in the number of immigrants as the winds die down and the sea becomes calmer. It can only be a harbinger of what we are to expect once summer kicks off.

Given that the Frontex Mission has been phased out and replaced by the EU Triton Mission – which is on a much smaller scale, and only covers sea areas close to EU shores – are we to expect some of the horrifying images that we saw in the Canary Islands some five years ago where corpses were washing up on the beaches as tourists on the sun loungers looked on in sheer bewilderment?

Italy is trying to pick up the slack and has already announced that it is withdrawing some of its naval assets from the horn of Africa to concentrate on mopping up in the Mediterranean. But it will not be enough and Italy cannot do it alone. Malta barely has any long-distance offshore capabilities. Given that the situation in Libya looks to be worsening rather than improving, it almost certainly looks like we are heading towards a record number of arrivals this year. It was pointed out that many of the arrivals are still from sub-Saharan Africa, but things are changing. We have seen a spike in the number of Syrians who are seeking shelter in Europe and people from Libya are also leaving their country as it continues to tear itself apart.

This must always be taken into the context of potential Islamic terrorists making their way into the country – and eventually Europe. This is why we must all work together to ensure that first and foremost, lives are saved. Secondly, we must find an equitable solution in integrating migrants. If we fail to do that, we risk more of the attacks which have taken place on the Continent. The most frightening this is that those who become radicalised are the children of migrants. They might be European citizens, but they have become so disenfranchised with their lives that they turn on the countries which gave them shelter, and also pushed them away. This is a collective problem on Europe’s doorstep. No country can solve it, nor deal with it, alone.