The human tragedies sweeping Malta’s shores, heaving detention centres, and the 2011 Libyan revolution forced former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi to confront tough decisions. He shares his insights with Ariadne Massa ahead of this month’s migration summit in Valletta.

Racial intolerance was at its peak 10 years ago when the onslaught of irregular migration caused 22 per cent of Maltese to openly admit they were racist in a Times of Malta online poll.

Soon after the island joined the EU in 2004, the number of arrivals began to swell, hitting 1,822 in 2005 and rising to a record 2,775 three years later.

Malta was ill-prepared to cope and as detention centres overflowed a makeshift Tent City rose alongside the closed centre in Ħal Far – bunk beds for 800 immigrants were erected in 25 tents that failed to provide basic shelter from scorching sun and fierce winds.

This “intolerable” situation, together with a prolonged mandatory detention period, earned the island repeated condemnation from local and international NGOs for failing to respect migrants’ basic human rights.

At the time, the government, led by Lawrence Gonzi, was facing society’s fears, more often than not irrational, that the island was being invaded and could not cope with this “disproportionate” burden.

The message he was facing, as he repeatedly fought to secure commitments from the EU to share the burden, was “send these illegals back”.

Dr Gonzi refused to be swayed by this antagonistic sentiment. He was resolute that Malta was duty-bound to rescue people fleeing desperate situations.

However, his government then refused to budge on the contentious issue of detention and although the mandatory period was eventually reduced, it defended its policy to detain immigrants on arrival; a position maintained by the current government.

Asked if he wished things were done differently, Dr Gonzi scorns questions on the benefit of hindsight as “a figment of the imagination”, but opens up on a subject that today he admits niggles his conscience.

“I have always refrained from answering similar questions... Decisions are taken in a particular context and therefore they cannot be judged in a different context,” he said.

“But I will make one exception… I should have done more to make sure the period of detention was the shortest possible without endangering our security.

“More importantly, that even during the period of detention the conditions where immigrants were being held could have been much, much better. We could have done more to make their stay in those circumstances more human, more social, and more open to the quality of life that we should establish as a minimum for everyone.”

He still maintains that a certain level of security was and remains important, but concedes more could have been done.

“So I’m disappointed with myself that I didn’t take this on with more urgency,” he added.

Reflecting on that difficult period, a subject that remains divisive to this day, he is pleased he remained steadfast against the populist sentiment.

“I believe it takes some political courage within today’s set of values to stand up and say hang on, we can debate the impact of migration and its economic situation, but at the end of the day our responsibility is to go out there and save lives,” he said.

At the time not all political parties came out strongly to highlight their values and say where they stood against the current of strong dissenting voices.

“If people spoke up I couldn’t hear it… It could be that it was said, but the cacophony drowned out these voices. Our approach was value-based, to help victims of terrible tragedies.”

What frustrated Dr Gonzi was that although Malta’s performance in one of the worst global economic phases since World War I was excellent, Maltese were at the time largely indifferent to this accomplishment and migration remained people’s most pressing concern.

Luckily, Cabinet members backed him in his approach and were mostly on board on the general principles. Any disagreements focused mostly on the niceties, such as how to argue their case within the EU to secure a commitment on burden sharing; a term Dr Gonzi believes was “unfortunate”.

“The term we preferred was ‘responsibility sharing’. The use of the word ‘burden’ for humans is unfortunate.”

Within his parliamentary group the voices were a bit more discordant with some believing the island was being too generous and sending out a message of welcoming anybody.

At an EU level Malta was spiritedly pushing for concrete help from member states, a difficult task that often received lukewarm reactions.

But, Dr Gonzi acknowledges that although the arrivals in Malta were huge considering the island’s population and density, the general perception of an invasion was incorrect.

We could have done more to make their stay in those circumstances more human

“A number of immigrants who had been accepted as refugees and given humanitarian status eventually moved on, not necessarily through formal procedures, but in reality the numbers never exceeded 5,000 to 6,000,” he said.

“So these great big arguments of an invasion that would undermine our culture were incorrect, simply put forward by those who had a specific agenda.”

By 2010 the number of arrivals had all but died down – just 47 migrants arrived by boat that year.

This was due to the push-back policy of then Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi; an agreement he had reached with Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi to intercept immigrants adrift in the Mediterranean and returned to Libyan authorities.

This was later declared illegal by the European Court of Human Rights as it violated their rights to seek asylum and exposed them to the risk of torture or degrading treatment in detention camps.

Mr Berlusconi’s government, like Dr Gonzi’s, was at the time under pressure to stem the massive tide of immigration to Italy.

Malta had gained tremendously from this, wedging the island between a rock and a hard place. Even though Dr Gonzi was against the push-back policy, it eased populist pressure on the government.

By not speaking out so strongly against this controversial deal, was the government tacitly supporting it?

“We never agreed with the pushback policy and I’m on record on a number of occasions highlighting our policy to do our very best to save people who were at risk.

“We never pushed back those seeking refuge. We were totally against Italy’s push-back policy – whether directly or indirectly,” Dr Gonzi stressed.

Any ‘advantage’ gained as a consequence of this policy was short-lived as the revolution in Libya in 2011 reignited the problem, with some 1,600 asylum seekers fleeing the war in just the first three months immediately following the fighting.

Today, few immigrants reach Malta’s shores – echoing the situation five years ago – automatically raising suspicions that some form of secret deal has been reached, this time between Italy and Malta.

Questions started being raised locally after Italy eased the pressure off Malta in past years by bearing the brunt of migrant flows, but a recent political slip ignited speculation that the island had conceded “something” in return.

Six weeks ago Italian media pounced on a statement by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela who first said there was “an informal agreement” between the two countries on where migrants should disembark before retracting this declaration to say there was only “close collaboration”.

Despite this, a leading article in Il Giornale, which supports the Italian Opposition, reported that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had agreed with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to exchange irregular migrants for oil exploration rights.

Quoting unnamed sources, the Italian daily said: “It is being suspected that, in exchange for Italy taking all irregular immigrants, Malta has conceded oil exploration rights in areas disputed by both Italy and Malta.”

The government vehemently denies this.

Does Dr Gonzi believe such a “secret deal” exists between Malta and Italy?

“It certainly raises questions and I don’t have the answers. What I do know is the fact that the flow of immigrants to the EU, especially to Italy, has reached record numbers while those landing in Malta have practically stopped,” he said.

Being extremely careful in his choice of words, Dr Gonzi points out that until 2013 the Italian government had always insisted that Malta should take every boat of migrants rescued within its disproportionately huge search and rescue area, even when these were much closer to Lampedusa than Malta.

“I do not have an explanation for this change of policy. The fact is that at a time when the volume and flow into Italy has shot up, Italy has changed its policy towards Malta to take up all the immigrants who pass through our territorial waters, and Search and Rescue Area.”

Dr Gonzi recalls how at the time Malta had felt this was not acceptable and went against the immigrants’ interests.

“At one stage the Italian government had made the ridiculous claim that Lampedusa was not a safe port and ergo the safest port of call was Valletta. I remember arguing with Berlusconi over this... It was eventually dropped. But I do find it quite strange that this whole thing has now fizzled out.”

So what does he think happened?

“I refuse to speculate but Italy had been, for a number of years, making demands on a number of things we never accepted, mostly related to oil exploration.”

Dr Gonzi said that during his term of office the Italian government had made a series of “unreasonable claims” – namely reducing Malta’s Flight Information Region; claiming exclusive rights for oil exploration in the northwest part of our continental shelf and “the even more absurd claim” over all the continental shelf, stretching from the southeast tip of Sicily towards Libya.

The island’s FIR is enormous – even larger than its SAR – and payment is received every time a plane flies over this space.

“I consider it to be one of the national assets, which we should never, ever give up.

They need political leadership of brave Libyan personalities who can transmit confidence and trust

“I have no evidence to indicate this is linked to immigration. But Italy has consistently put forward these claims and I honestly hope the Maltese government will continue to hold its ground on these issues and refuse to horse-trade, especially when this involves the sovereign dignity of us as a country and the human dignity of innocent immigrants, whatever the negotiation or proposal on the table.”

Looking at it clinically, Dr Gonzi shrugs and says everybody is quite happy with a situation where the number of arrivals plummets, but a policy does not change overnight and cynicism about such goodwill remains.

“Fine if you want to take a back seat, but it does raise questions that deserve answers. And I believe if it is such a straightforward matter then the answers should be forthcoming.

“What is worrying me from an observer point of view is that these doubts have since been raised in the foreign press where the Italians have actually alleged there may be some kind of secret agreement. This damages our reputation and our stature as a country.

“Therefore, I believe, it is in Malta’s national interest to clear the air. That’s all.

“I urge the government to do so as quickly as possible because the international community looks at us and judges us and we should not let anything shed a bad light… especially when we’re discussing an ongoing human tragedy.”

This human tragedy, particularly the incident of April 19 when 800 migrants were shipwrecked in the Mediterranean, is what sparked the urgent need for a migration summit to step up dialogue between the EU and Africa. The conference, being held in Valletta between November 11 and 12, is intended to foster a partnership to find common solutions, but many are sceptical this will achieve the desired results, especially after a similar meeting in 2011 was never followed up.

Is this simply another talking shop? Are people’s expectations being set too high? Or does Dr Gonzi believe this could be the first step to foster communication?

“It’s a positive step and should receive everyone’s support. Of course, we have to measure our expectations. A one-day meeting is not going to resolve the mega issues we have on the table and no reasonable person can expect this summit to resolve them, but it will lay the ground for a framework of cooperation, which is absolutely vital.

“My personal expectation is not what the outcome from those 24 hours will be, but the outcome over the next six months.”

The best result, he feels, would be the creation of an internal framework of communication that helps countries from Africa and the EU to try and come up with practical, real day-to-day proposals to support the millions of refugees fleeing wars and persecution.

“I always believed it’s the regional powers that are in the best position to address regional unrest. So if it is Syria or Iraq or the horn of Africa then the best players to try and impact are those to be hit directly,” he said, adding he was trying to quell any cynicism and focusing on a positive outcome.

What he would have liked to see, is the UN take up this issue as a major item on its agenda. “I consider it to be as big as the other pressing matters, such as climate change.

“We have to understand that the problem of human irregular migration exists everywhere... So why in heaven’s name isn’t this at the very topmost, urgent UN agenda to give it a global solution rather than a regional one.”

He questions why authorities anchor themselves to options that were good 20 years ago but outdated today, from international conventions to EU policies that “exacerbate the problem rather than resolve the matter”.

“I’m hoping, without trumpeting the issue, that the summit in Malta will trigger this type of debate even within the UN circles.”

The situation in Libya is another pressing matter on Dr Gonzi’s mind and he has been closely following the situation, seeing he played a key role from the very first days of the crisis.

His first decision not to return the two Mirage fighter jets that landed in Malta on February 21, 2011, was the first step in breaking the historical ties with the Libyan dictator.

Subsequent decisions showcased Malta as humanitarian hub to help thousands escaping Libya, and earned him international praise.

Reflecting on the situation, Dr Gonzi is disappointed that the international and European communities seemed to withdraw completely as soon as the regime collapsed.

Now, resolving the problem is a hundred times more difficult, and Dr Gonzi believes there has to be a Libyan solution where the Libyans have to decide whether they want to have one unified country or not.

“To do this they need political leadership of brave Libyan personalities who can transmit confidence and trust; a sense of good feeling, which so far seems elusive.”

“But I always remain hopeful… Even though the more time passes the more complicated it gets. I hope common sense will prevail.”