Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo made a strong statement last week.
It has long become a habit for him to take to Facebook to air his views. He was doing it when he was Education Minister, but not always about education matters. And he is doing it still now that he was shifted to the foreign ministry; again, not always about the portfolio for which he is responsible.
Given the minister’s journalistic background, one is tempted to label them as editorials although, given the platform and the way they are written, they are certainly more personal than a newspaper leader could ever be.
They are put online very early in the morning, and whatever subject they cover, expose the minister’s deepest considerations. Whether one agrees with them is another matter, but they are certainly food for thought.
Last Saturday’s writing was of a troubled man, one who is wrestling with his conscience as he sees his country dragged into an international controversy while believing that he and the government he represents are doing their best to safeguard the best interests of Maltese citizens. At the same time, he knows that “people will continue to drown”, as he put it, unless drastic action is taken.
Minister Bartolo was writing about irregular migration issues, a topic which he has addressed several times in his daily observations in the past weeks. At the start of the post, Bartolo said he wanted to open up about his “sadness” and “frustration” at the way the issue was being treated, quickly adding that he will seriously consider leaving politics if the issue is not dealt with properly by the European Union.
“I do not want anyone who crosses the Mediterranean to drown. I do not want people, whoever they are, treated badly, enslaved and beaten,” he added. But Malta “cannot continue to shoulder responsibility to take care of thousands of people sent towards Europe via Malta by traffickers and smugglers”.
“I want our colleagues at the European Union to take on this responsibility with us and take their share of the people we save in our seas,” he said.
If it is impossible to have a policy that defends European people while at the same time showing dignity to migrants crossing the high seas “I will resign,” Bartolo goes on. He admits that this would only solve his problem and allow his conscience to be at peace, knowing that his resignation would be an admission that he believes the EU is not doing enough to protect countries like Malta while giving assistance to migrants in distress.
But we get the gist of his bold message. Whether the European Union will, really and truly, live up to its principles of solidarity by coming up with a serious effort to tackle this issue remains to be seen. Very often the EU has taken a half-hearted approach which, on paper, seemingly attempts to assist its southern members, but at the end of the day does little, if anything, to alleviate the difficulties that Malta (and Italy) faces as more and more migrants leave Libya in search of greener pastures in Europe.
The way Malta has been treated by the EU on migration matters is one of the greatest disappointments of Malta’s 16 years of European membership.
It’s enough to say, as Bartolo has written, that Europe has taken only eight per cent of the migrants that landed in Malta or were brought here by the Armed Forces since Malta joined the EU.
It is a statistic that should shame Europe.