It has been a hectic fortnight. Malta has just gone through a referendum on Spring hunting and a local election to appoint our local councils.

But in the meantime, to put things into perspective, we have had two tragedies unfold on our doorstep while this was happening. In the last week, some 11,000 migrants were plucked from the sea, but in two separate incidents, some 1,100 perished as two boats sank off the coast of Libya. In one instance, 400 are presumed to have died and yesterday, another 700 souls vanished. That figure is 10%. One in ten of those people who fled Africa died in their search for a better life.

The news also comes as two groups of Ethiopians were slain by Islamic State militants at the very departure country that these people left from - Libya. It is understood that the latest incident was caused by those on board the vessel rushing to one side when a merchant vessel pulled up to rescue the boat full of migrants, which was adrift.

Sadly, it seems that those on board rushed to one side and the boat capsized taking almost everyone with it. When specialised rescues are organised by the AFM, the Italian Navy and MOAS, amongst others, the first thing that personnel do is tell those aboard to keep the boat balanced. Sadly, with the best of intentions, rescue attempts by merchantmen, do sometimes result in  such loss of life.

When we speak of tragedies at sea, we often equate things to the loss of the Titanic, back in 1912. 1,517 people died when the ship sank. But in our very own Mediterranean, many more people are dying and at a very alarming rate. Hundreds die every month - in this case thousands - and this year is already being touted as a record year for both departures and deaths and the human trafficking rings continue to act with impunity.

EU Ministers are set to meet today to discuss the way forward. But it is clear that the only way forward faced with this situation is to organise an EU mission - involving every single member state - to patrol the Mediterranean Sea and rescue these people. We cannot continue to talk about setting up asylum application offices in Libya. Libya is a de fact failed state. It is tearing itself apart and Islamic State grows there as it continues to take advantage of the power vacuum.

We cannot push people back to a warzone where they risk being killed by IS or human traffickers. The solution must involve patrolling the Mediterranean non-stop and resettling these people within the EU on a basis of a formula which allows for population density, availability of work and, it has to be said, wealth per capita.

Malta and Italy experience the reality of news of hundreds of people dying nearly every week. Yet Europe remains passive. This is a collective issue. It is not a 'problem'. It is a catastrophe and we need to wake up and take notice. Some years ago, we looked on in horror as photographs in the Canary Islands surfaced on tourists sitting on the beach on sun loungers as bodies of African people washed up on the shore and were left there. We cannot, and should not, ever let that happen again.