As EU leaders prepare to meet in Brussels this week in a last-ditch attempt to formulate a response to the refugee crisis, a group of students have just spent the weekend coming up with their own solutions.

Over the past three days, 40 students, including from overseas, took on the role of delegates from countries across the world for the inaugural conference of the Malta Model United Nations Society, a student organisation at the University of Malta.

Entitled ‘Lives adrift: fighting the exploitation of irregular immigrants’, the conference saw delegates simulating meetings of UN legal committee meeting and the UN refugee agency committee. Over three days of discussion and negotiation at the parliament building in Valletta, delegates debated the plight faced by immigrants from a variety of angles.

The conference culminated in four resolutions on key topics, including a crackdown on human trafficking and coordinating search and rescue efforts. The resolutions will be presented to policymakers in the coming weeks.

“You definitely see a difference in approach looking at migration from a UN perspective as opposed to the EU,” said Hillary Briffa, one of the organisers and a PhD student at King’s College, London.

“You have countries of departure involved in the debate that are not having their voices heard on the European platform. The EU perspective seems to be about why are they arriving and what to do once they get here, rather than addressing the root cause of the problem.” The conference was supported by the US Embassy, the V18 Foundation and the Office of the President.

Participants were addressed by MEP Roberta Metsola and Jesuit Refugee Service director Katrine Camilleri, among others.

At the closing ceremony yesterday, speaker Anġlu Farrugia said that if the UN was to survive as a credible international organisation it was important to ask serious questions about its functioning.