Brutal realities

There was an intriguing, yet significant point in yesterday's The Sunday Times report about "illegal immigrants", as the boat people risking their lives to seek a better life in Europe continue to be labelled. It concerned the latest rescue operation by the brave personnel of the Armed Forces of Malta. The AFM, said the report, were alerted "by a US warship located some 26 miles north of the island of a boatload of illegal immigrants in trouble, when their rickety boat started taking in water as the sea swell increased.

"According to the AFM, the US vessel provided food and drink to the 25 men and one woman on board, before continuing on its way." Was that really it, as far as the captain of the US vessel was concerned? He responded to the humane imperative of providing food and drink but, once the boat was taking in water in a rising sea swell, it was in evident danger of sinking. It is hard to believe that the US vessel did not stay in the vicinity of the leaking rickety boat until an AFM boat arrived on the scene.

The US captain may well have done that, but did not publicise the fact. There seems to be a lot that is not being publicised. An earlier media report revealed that a fishing boat captain would not take on boat people in distress because he feared they might be armed. How many others turned their back on boat people in danger of losing their lives?

The significant point in the above in regard to other pliers of the Med, is that the drama of the Mediterranean boat people is replete with unknowns. What is actually known is hard enough. The would-be migrants are coming from the bowels of Africa. Many of them get to somewhere in Libya where someone has organised an unhealthy trade in a new version of human trafficking.

The would-be migrants cram onto boats, fuelled by little more than their desperation. The Libyan authorities say their country's coastline is too long to monitor effectively. They seem to show reluctance to fulfil their search and rescue obligations. Malta does try to fulfil its obligations, notwithstanding the huge size of the area covered by them, particularly in relation to the island's resources. In addition there are those within the rest of the EU who expect the Maltese Armed Forces to operate beyond our search and rescue area when Libya does not do so itself.

Aside from the legalities and expectations, there are the futile promises. The EU has set up Frontex in what is little more than a gesture that it is doing something at all. Even if feet stop dragging, Frontex is not even a partial solution to the situation. Sea patrols can only be "effective" to some extent if they follow the policy advocated by extremists - to turn away boat people heading towards the southern European littoral, if necessary by force.

The reality is that once the boat people set out, nothing can stop them except the cruel sea, which it does with grim frequency. Those who escape its clutches must be rescued whenever that is possible. Whatever international law says or does not say, only inhuman brutes can allow people to die without doing their utmost to save them. Malta has been doing that. The boat people who thereby end up as uninvited migrants create a situation. It cannot be tackled through racism or honest preoccupation. The rest of the EU has to help by viewing the boat people, wherever they land or are taken in, as a matter for the whole community.

A BBC interviewer asked Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg whether Malta expected Britain to send boats to the Med, clearly implying that the notion was absurd. Dr Borg missed the opportunity to say clearly that Malta does not deal in absurdities: It simply feels that the relief extended to those fleeing from Africa needs to be properly shared.

That is not a simplistic proposal, as the Frontex deputy executive director said on Friday. It is simple sense. We expect that from the EU. So, it seems, does its president. Let's see where that gets us...