I urge Maltese MEPs and the government to dissuade Emmanuel Macron from sending French nationals to war-torn Libya to process asylum applications.

The idea is both hopeless and preposterous. This is no time to expose innocent people to the horrors of a divided country where warlords and the rest will either kill or kidnap such people, who may hold a false belief they are engaging in a humanitarian mission.

If Malta, as a Christian country, wishes to protect the lives of fellow Europeans from certain death, then it must protest and make it plain it cannot support the sending of lambs into this slaughterhouse.

The issue is an urgent one and I hope and pray Joseph Muscat will use his best endeavours to stop this plan of action, conceived, no doubt, for the best of reasons. Reason is never enough, however, when the horrors of failure are there to see.

Our consciences sense the outcome will be very bad indeed and, as conscience is our only weapon, we must stand together and make our objections as clear as we can. Or else we suffer seeing needless human sacrifice, which might yet be avoided.