The issue of migration in the central Mediterranean is both complex and hotly contested. Its waters have provided the graveyard for 632 people so far this year with over 21,000 people having died or gone missing there since 2014.
During that period, the Mediterranean has also witnessed some of the most callous acts of brutality and inhumanity at the hands of governments and their agents. Despite a significant decline in the number of migrants arriving in recent years, the mortality rate has more than doubled in what is one of the world’s most dangerous routes.
Because of geography and history, Malta has been in the thick of it for many years. While constantly insisting that it has always acted legally and transparently – claims that are open to dispute – there is consistent evidence that the Maltese state has played a vicious roulette with the lives of desperate people.
Along with other governments on the shores of the Mediterranean, Malta has necessarily and correctly criticised the European Union and its member states for failing in their most basic duties of shared responsibility. Richer and more powerful European states have singularly failed Malta, thus providing the government with an excuse for ignoring agreed international obligations.
In a carefully-researched and hard-hitting report, Malta and its fellow members of the EU, as well as EU institutions, stand accused of “lethal disregard” for the rights and lives of vulnerable migrants. The report was published by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and covers the period of the last two years.
The report highlights key issues, including failures to assist those in distress (including ignoring distress calls), a lack of transparency and coordination, dangerous practices, such as firing at or close to migrant boats, causing boats to capsize, and physical and verbal violence.
The report is a litany of failings, abuses and the denial of basic rights. There is much in the report that is not only disturbing but also disgusting
Pushbacks, criminalising humanitarian organisations, failure to provide adequate accommodation and services and arbitrary detention are also described. Malta’s detention centres sometimes lack clean water to drink, are neglectful of health concerns, are severely overcrowded and unbearably hot, have used inappropriate force and soldiers even accused of encouraging detainees to commit suicide.
The report is a litany of failings, abuses and the denial of basic rights. There is much in the report that is not only disturbing but also disgusting.
Tellingly, the report states unequivocally that Libya cannot in any way be described as a ‘safe place’, with repeated experiences of death, disappearance, torture, ill-treatment, gender-based violence and exploitation.
It concludes that what is happening is the result of a failure of governance, the use of ad-hoc strategies rather than policies and a serious lack of solidarity across Europe. What makes the situation worse is that much of what is happening is preventable.
The report includes many straightforward and implementable recommendations for urgent reform directed to all (including Libya) with a role in preventing future harm, upholding respect for the law and protecting migrants at sea.
Malta is entitled to challenge the EU and its member states robustly on the lack of solidarity. Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo recently told his fellow EU ministers that because Malta did not have the “carrying capacity” for more migrants, it had to cooperate with Libya on interception and return. He urged more support for Libya to protect its borders from human traffickers and called on it to involve the UNHCR in running its migrant centres to make them safer.
But to mount a credible challenge, Malta must practise integrity in its own approach. Currently, this is not the case, which undermines Malta’s short- and medium-term interests.
It also places Malta at the core of the rights abuses enumerated in the report.