I have stopped watching House of Cards. As hooked and as addicted as I was to the Netflix series, for the last few weeks I have been finding each episode… boring.

I know the reason. It is being completely upstaged by the real-world political drama played out on the international stage (and spiced up by comic elements played out on the Maltese stage, or should I say in Velbert, Germany).

I watched aghast as Donald Trump told us about the ‘bad dudes’ who will now be quashed thanks to his illegal executive order travel ban, which horrifically discriminates on nationality and totally goes against basic human rights laws.

I’ve been reading stories of people stuck in airports, banned from travelling, from joining their families, from returning home to the US just because of their religion. Most were heartbreaking – how do they cope with the feeling of helplessness, I wondered?

Initially there was a feeling that we were watching a gripping episode of a political series, but now we know that the world is turning into a Gotham planet.

However, as Trump’s migrant chaos revved all the media, we read how Malta is not exactly going to be the island of empathy with refugees. According to Politico, the Maltese presidency of the EU Council has asked the European Commission to explore legal ways to send more migrants and refu­gees back. Legal ways? To send refugees back? I had to read the article several times to make sure I was understanding correctly.

Because there is a very important international humanitarian rule which this very ‘exploration of legal ways’ would be blatantly breaking. The non-refoulement principle means that refugees running away from war zones and other disaster locations cannot be sent back if there is a remote chance that they will be persecuted.

Sit down with them and listen to their story

Politico is saying the Maltese presidency is asking the Commission to “examine how to interpret and apply” the legal implications of refoulement.

In other words: “Juncker, sieħbi sibilna naq’a loophole”.

So men in ties and women in suits will sit round a table, in the warmth of heated rooms, with food nibbles at hand, they will have lengthy chats about legal nitty gritties and then everyone will go back to their cosy hotels. Meanwhile, refugees who would have left their country and crossed the desert with the hope of a better life will be sent back to… hell

Every week, thousands of men, women and children are fleeing their home countries, on to a peri­lous 2,000-mile journey to Libya across the Sahara desert. Women – whether travelling alone or accompanied – suffer a lot throughout this journey: the horror stories of rape, of sexual violence, of humiliation have been reaching us all.

The fate of men is equally fraught. They have to watch as their wives or their sisters are raped, helpless, for if they try and stop the aggressor, they or their kin will be killed. But it’s not just that: they too are often victims of sexual humiliation, genital torture, rape or attempted rape.

I have spoken to countless of these people, their eyes, years after, still vacant at the horrors they went through.

But we are not to worry: the Commission is proposing spending €200 million from the EU Trust Fund for Africa to support training and equipment for the Libyan Coast Guard – so they would be able to send the refugees back.

And then they will be settled in camps: not just in Libya, we were told, but maybe in Egypt and Algeria. These three countries compete with themselves on which has the poorest human right record. If the EU is paying these countries to set up camps, I have a strong suspicion that the money will be going everywhere except for those camps.

Instead of this charade, can the Maltese presidency of the Council encourage the Commission to put itself in the shoes of those fleeing persecution only to be caught and sent back to Libya for a spot of more torture and abuse… for the rest of their life?

Maybe they ought to take a moment and ask themselves what would they do in that situation. I for one would want to end my life – for what point is there when there is no hope?

Maybe I can suggest to the Home Affairs Minister to find the time to sit and speak properly to refugees in Malta – sit down with them and listen to their story and then relay the heartbreaking message to the Prime Minister and the rest of the Council.

Last year, 5,000 people drown­ed trying to cross the Medi­terranean into Europe. For bureau­crats and politicians it is just a number that needs to be decreased. But these were people with a life, with a real family, with hopes for their children, which is why they were running away from war, violence and a soulless life.

Unless the EU changes tack, what it is telling these people is: there’s no hope for you, you are forever destined to stay in your misery.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, recently speaking about the disaster of Aleppo, and the devastation refugees fled from Syria, urged us all not fear migrants when they seek protection: “Do spare a thought for the terror they endured,” he said.

Please do.

krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @KrisChetcuti