Foreign Affairs Minister Evarist Bartolo has defended Malta’s decision to close its ports due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but said rescue at sea will resume when the situation improved.
Replying to a series of parliamentary questions from Opposition leader Adrian Delia and Labour MP Jean Claude Micallef, Bartolo said the situation was made even worse following Italy’s decision to close its ports.
He denounced what he described as attempts by the far right to exploit the current exceptional circumstances to foment racism.
“It seems that apart from the hunting season, we also opened the racism season,” he said.
The foreign affairs minister said that Malta’s approach to the pandemic was to close its borders to limit the spread like the rest of the world.
“Even countries like Belgium and the Netherlands adopted such stance, with the only difference being they have no sea border,” he said.
Speaking about the situation in neighbouring Libya, Bartolo said there was a humanitarian disaster in the making. This is why Malta is demanding an EU humanitarian mission in Libya and the delivery of €100 million worth of food, medicines and medical equipment.
There are currently 900,000 people in Libya needing assistance, half of whom are women and children, he said.
Moreover, civil war refugees are living in overcrowded residences in Tripoli, with as much as six families living under the same roof. Bartolo said this would spell disaster should the pandemic spread in Libya.
“Such grim outlook means that the only hope for people living by the coast is to pay 1,000 dinars and attempt to reach Europe aboard a dinghy,” the minister said.
“This is why Malta is insisting on humanitarian aid in Libya. This is the only way to prevent more crossings,” Bartolo said.
In his address Bartolo expressed disappointment that successive administrations had called on EU countries to show solidarity to relocate migrants with limited results.
He added that out of the 21,000 migrants who reached Malta since 2005, EU countries had taken just 1,700 - nearly half the total of 3,300 relocated to the US during Barack Obama's presidency.