Time and time again we have seen Europe and the world at large recoil in shock and horror at the multiple shipwrecks in the Mediterranean that have claimed, between them, thousands of lives.

Last April, European leaders convened an emergency summit to thrash out the problem in the wake of the latest, and particularly harrowing, tragedy. The result: a pathetic pledge to relocate a handful of refugees and an equally pathetic declaration of literal war on the Mediterranean’s people smugglers, which, despite the EU’s best efforts, the United Nations Security Council has failed to approve for a number of obvious reasons that do not merit space here.

Between then and the more recent migration shift to the EU’s external land borders, the European inertia to seriously address the problem of mass migration towards Europe appeared to slow almost to a halt, until the situation in Calais began to dominate the British news networks. Soon after that we had the border standoffs in Hungary and the desperate crossings of the narrow straits between Turkey and Greece.

Some images and incidents have tugged hard at the world’s heartstrings, such as that of the lifeless toddler washed up face-down on a Greek beach or the Hungarian camerawoman who appeared to deliberately trip a man fleeing from the police while clutching his seven-year-old son in his arms.

In short, anywhere you look on television, the European networks are inundated with news coverage of migrants in Hungary, Germany, France the UK, Greece and Turkey – and the pace appears to be sustained, more sustained that it had been even when the European media was faced with several hundred deaths in one single fell swoop in the Mediterranean.

The reason why the news coverage of recent migration movements has not dissipated as it did with, for example, the Lampedusa tragedies, is that the new surge affects the heart of Europe and not only the mere peripheries. 

It is now directly affecting many of the very people who once turned a deaf ear to the pleas of countries like Malta, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Greece for burden-sharing mechanisms and workable solutions to the issue of hundreds of displaced people literally knocking down Europe’s door seeking a safe haven from the horrors they have fled.

Whatever the case – whether it was a critical mass of tragedies that has now been reached, a critical mass of European citizens who have now had their eyes opened, or a critical mass of EU countries that are now being directly affected – it is hoped that this new impetus will lead to real solutions, and not turn out to be yet another flash in the pan of faux humanitarianism.

The litmus test will come in November, when EU, African and other key countries gather in Malta for the Valletta Migration Summit. That had been agreed upon by EU leaders back at their April summit, and it is hoped that the November summit will bring with it better solutions than the kneejerk conclusions that emerged from the April summit.

Oil rights for migrant rescues?

There have been some very serious accusations in the Italian media this week to the effect that, in short, Malta and Italy had brokered a secret deal that would see Italy picking up Malta’s share of the rescue of migrants at sea in return in return for oil rights that have been surrendered by Malta in an area south of Sicily which is under dispute between the two countries.

These are some very serious allegations that have been raised by sections of the Italian media, serious on a number of levels, which the government must clarify at all costs. But so far it has failed to do so in any real way, except to deny the existence of any such deal.

The Italian newspaper Il Giornale claimed earlier this week that Italy had agreed to take all of Malta’s migrants in exchange for oil exploration rights. The claim was in part based on a statement, and then a denial, by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela that Malta and Italy had an informal agreement for the latter to take all migrants rescued at sea.

In its retraction, the government said that there is no informal agreement with Italy on immigration and what there is instead “very close collaboration where Malta uses all its AFM resources to save migrants from the sea”.

It has, however, been noted that Malta has not assisted in rescues at sea as it has in previous years, while it also must be noted that a total of just 93 migrants have reached Maltese shores this year – a mere drop in the bucket compared with previous years and the numbers of migrants that Italy has been grappling with.

The government, on the other hand, would be extremely foolish indeed were it to deny any such agreement only for that agreement to come back to haunt it one fine day.

But one thing appears to be certain: considering the years of bickering between the countries over responsibilities for migrants at sea, Malta had struck some form of deal with Italy for Malta’s burden to have been all but completely absorbed by Italy. As the adage goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Should that be the case, the Maltese government should state exactly what was agreed on – formally, informally or otherwise.