A Church of Scotland minister based in Malta has insisted that the focus for churches in the current migration controversy should not be on politics, but the people caught in the middle.

Reverend Doug McRoberts, minister at St. Andrew’s Scots Church in Malta, leads the “Out of Africa…into Malta” mission project which helps African refugees on the island.

In a statement, he said the project’s work was now more vital than ever.

“Just at a time when so many of our prayers have been answered, with new opportunities to develop our mission and remake broken lives, the threat of this action (repatriation) and both the public support for it and the opposition to it have increased tensions in Malta. This makes our ministry to migrants even more sensitive than it was already – but also more vital.

“While we are well aware of political realities here, and of increasing pressures on all who seek to support African refugees, our focus is clearly on those who most need our help. We remember always that the infant Jesus was himself a refugee, whose parents sought refuge by going into North Africa with him when the politics of the day threatened his young life. We are simply seeking to what Mary and Joseph did (by helping those who need the help most).”

“Out of Africa…into Malta” is the Presbytery of Europe’s Mission Project and was established with the help of the Church of Scotland Guild in 2011. The project aims to make life a little more tolerable and bearable for families who have lost everything and found themselves on the island.