Pope Francis’s visit to Malta this weekend continues on Sunday when it will have a special focus on migration, an uncomfortable subject for Malta and the Maltese.

The pontiff’s official itinerary includes a stop at the Ħal Far Peace Lab, which houses migrants.

At Ħal Far, the plight of migrants will take centre stage as they share their stories of life on the island with the holy father.

Speaking at the Vatican earlier this week, the pope said he will be following in St Paul’s footsteps, describing Malta as “committed to welcoming so many brothers and sisters seeking refuge”.

However, nearly 2,000 years since St Paul was saved from a shipwreck off Malta’s coast, it is difficult to reconcile that biblical account of compassion with how the country sees migrants today. 

The government has denied that it was involved in the irregular return of migrants to Libya

Malta’s link with the story of migration was catapulted onto the world stage in 2014 when a far more catastrophic shipwreck off the coast cost some 500 migrants lost their lives. 

The tragedy grabbed the headlines internationally, cementing Malta as a country at the forefront of the EU’s migration crisis. 

And this is felt at home. The issue of migration routinely appears on a list of major concerns during nationwide polls.

In some areas, those most densely populated by migrant communities, migrants and their lack of integration into Maltese society top the lists of residents’ perceived problems. 

Labour says Malta 'full up'

This has filtered its way into political discourse, with the governing Labour Party regularly referring to Malta as “full up”.

In fact, Labour prides itself on having taken steps to stem the flow of migrants arriving from Africa to Malta. 

According to the UNHCR, 832 migrants reached Malta’s shores by sea last year. The government has refused to give a breakdown of arrival figures.

The same UNHCR figures show that 2,280 arrivals were recorded the previous year, which was less than half the number arriving five years earlier.

Only on Friday, Malta refused to offer a port of safety to 106 migrants stranded off Malta.

The Peace Lab, where the pope will meet migrants, is just a short walk from the Safi detention centre.

Once brimming with hundreds of migrants, the former army barracks turned migrant prison today houses fewer than 150 men and women, most of whom are awaiting the end of administrative processes in a bid to secure refugee status. 

Migrants returned to Libya

Prime Minister Robert Abela has boasted during political rallies of Malta receiving close to no migrants in recent years.

He claims to have done this through special cooperation with the Libyan authorities.

This cooperation was laid bare when Times of Malta exposed how the government had engaged private fishing boats to pick up drifting migrants, returning them to Libya with the help of the Libyan coastguard.  

The government has denied that it was involved in the irregular return of migrants to Libya, something that could constitute a violation of international law, but the matter is being weighed in the Valletta courts.

Then, Malta’s ugly relationship with migration was written in blood.

Murder that shocked Malta

Almost three years ago to the day, on April 6, 2019, Ivorian national Lassana Cissé was shot dead in cold blood as he walked home along a dark rural road.

The murder sent shockwaves through the migrant community who spoke up about how they would be pelted with stones in drive-by attacks like the one that targeted Cissé. 

The story took a dark twist when the police charged two soldiers with the murder of Cissé and the attempted murder of two other migrants. 

A country’s relationship with migrants is best seen in how they treat them.

From the moment they set foot on the island, Malta’s migrant community are put in centres that the Council of Europe says flout European values. 

Then, many end up in precarious work. The so-called gig economy of food couriers is mostly reserved for Eastern European and Asian workers, leaving African migrants to risk their lives in Malta’s construction sites or frantically chase waste collection trucks through Malta’s streets.

The island’s migrant community are themselves aware of the significance of the pope’s visit.

In a letter to the pope, Peace Lab residents urged him to help Christians “see the value in other human beings”.

Perhaps the pope’s decision to visit migrants will prompt some soul searching.

The Pope will start Sunday with a visit to St Paul's Grotto and then to the basilica to meet pilgrims. 

At 10.15am, he will say mass on the granaries in Floriana. He will leave the island following his meeting with migrants.