Like all other coastal states, Malta is bound by international law and maritime conventions to ensure that people in distress at sea are rescued and promptly disembarked in a safe place.

However, over the past years, the Maltese authorities have shirked their responsibilities by resorting to dangerous and illegal tactics to turn away migrants and refugees in its territorial waters.

Undenied reports indicate that it took the Armed Forces of Malta three days to rescue a group of 62 migrants in Malta’s search and rescue zone after the first distress call had reached them on September 4, despite being aware that they were stranded and without provisions on a leaking boat.

By the time the migrants were taken by a cargo ship, a four-year-old Syrian girl, Loujin, was found to be suffering from severe dehydration and was pronounced dead later in a hospital in Crete.

AFM’s delay to take action was once again cited as the blame for another tragic incident that followed when a six-year-old Syrian girl, among 28 asylum seekers, was found to be in critical condition after she was airlifted and taken to Mater Dei Hospital.

A cabinet decision, taken on April 15, 2020, declared Malta’s ports unsafe, thereby preventing the rescue of asylum seekers. This led to countless distress calls being ignored, which led to people left stranded on boats for weeks and deaths from starvation, dehydration and drowning.

That month, officers on board an AFM vessel refused to bring to safety 101 migrants on a small boat in Maltese territorial waters. Instead, they reportedly gave them fuel and turned them away to proceed with their journey to Italy.

Also, in April 2020, another group of 66 migrants, including seven women and three children, were left stranded on a rubber dinghy in Malta’s SAR zone for several days, during which they ran out of water.

By the time the migrants were intercepted, five of them had died, presumably of exhaustion and dehydration, while another seven went missing and were presumed to be also dead.

On the instructions of the Office of the Prime Minister, the surviving migrants were unlawfully returned to Tripoli on a fishing boat where they were put in detention, subjected to beatings and deprived of food.

Civil society movement Repubblika sought justice for these voiceless migrants, who suffered unjustly and died abandoned in the sea, by filing criminal complaints before the police commissioner against Prime Minister Robert Abela, then AFM commander Jeffrey Curmi and 11 soldiers.

Abela retaliated by igniting the xenophobic sentiment of the people during a televised press conference with his cabinet members seated behind him. He unceremoniously declared that Repubblika wanted to see him and 12 AFM officers, who were successfully fighting the coronavirus, in prison.

Abela’s bubble was soon burst by hundreds of medical doctors and other healthcare professionals who, in an open letter addressed to him, insisted that allowing people to die in the name of public health is contradictory and utterly nonsensical and that COVID-19 response must not come at the expense of human rights by abandoning migrants stranded on drifting boats.

High-profile Labour political figures carried from where Abela left, through social media messages that incited hatred against identifiable groups and individuals who defended the migrants’ rights.

One racist message posted on Facebook by Labour diehard Alfred Grixti, the CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, said that Malta’s government should seize ships used by humanitarian organisations and they should be sunk.

In its reaction, the Maltese Association of Social Workers declared that it considered Grixti’s sentiment to be a complete contradiction of the foundation’s function of providing its services to the most vulnerable.

Whether Malta’s dignity can be re-established is highly doubtful, considering the weakening of the country’s key institutions- Denis Tanti

Yet, this did not seem to bother Social Solidary Minister Michael Falzon, under whom Grixti falls.

Instead of sacking him right away or at least condemning his disgraceful comment publicly, Falzon showed that he is not worth his salt by simply stating that, if anything, Grixti has helped to fill the newspapers with news other than COVID-19.

Italy adopted a similar hardline approach to migrants after June 1, 2018, when Matteo Salvini’s name appeared on the international stage as Italian deputy prime minister and minister of the interior.

Within 10 days, Italy’s cabinet passed an emergency decree ruling that any vessel that sailed into Italian waters without permission would face a fine of up to €50,000. Three days later, Italy closed its ports to migrant rescue ships.

Salvini’s draconian anti-migration policies were challenged by Carola Rackete, a 31-year-old German captain of charity migrant rescue ship Sea Watch 3. She refused to dock at Tripoli with 53 migrants rescued in Italian waters, knowing that they would most likely be imprisoned and tortured.

Instead, she docked her ship in Lampedusa after spending 17 days in international waters, during which the migrants and the 22 crew members on board faced a heatwave and deteriorating conditions resulting in a humanitarian crisis.

Rackete was arrested and faced a penalty of 10 years imprisonment. However, the judge sided with her interpretation of maritime law and ruled that she had broken no laws and acted to protect the lives of passengers on board.

Salvini’s parliamentary immunity from prosecution was eventually lifted by the Italian Senate and he is currently standing trial on charges of kidnapping and abuse of authority when he refused to allow a rescue ship disembark over 150 migrants living in poor hygienic conditions in August 2019. At that time, an Italian court had overturned Salvini’s ban and allowed the ship to dock.

Salvini’s harsh anti-migrant laws have since been overturned by the Italian Senate, while action has been sought against him on several instances by the Italian courts. This is considered by many to have re-established Italy’s dignity.

Whether such dignity can be similarly re-established in Malta is highly doubtful, considering the weakening of the country’s key institutions responsible for the proper functioning of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights.  

Denis Tanti is a former assistant director at the health ministry.