We have all seen so much video on television and photos in papers of boats full of refugees. For me last Tuesday was the first time I saw the scene close by at Ċirkewwa. One gets an incredibly different view.

Seeing them up close, the way the boat was literally packed with standing room only and the women and children being boarded onto police buses, one cannot but pity these people. It is indeed a terrible human tragedy.

Certainly Malta cannot take these massive numbers of refugees. Certainly the pressure on our soldiers and policemen is beyond description. There are no easy solutions. Our responsibility must be shared with other European countries. The fact that those coming from Libya stop first in Malta, for geographic reasons, should not burden us with this enormous responsibility.

Yet witnessing the exhausted refugees can only but force us to think more prudently before we make our decisions.