I met with a good friend of ours the other day at the Royal Malta Yacht Club and as we discussed the terrorist threat facing Europe, he mentioned a recent experience with the coast guard.

He had been trained to register himself with the ports authorities and, therefore, he duly did. He was told he no longer needed to do this and could come and go as he pleased.

Have the regulations changed? Can people drive speedboats from Sicily and Catania loaded with drugs, for example, and simply moor up where they choose?

I urge any mariner who has been advised he may enter and exit Malta as he decides with no scrutiny whatsoever to report their experiences to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat directly (or to editor@timesofmalta.com).

In the meantime, the security services of Malta need to check and re-introduce procedures for mariners at sea to notify them of their intentions.

There has been a fourfold increase in drug-related deaths in 2015 and I am certain very few drugs come in through the airport. Security there is watertight. However, it seems possible they are coming in by speedboat from Italy or Tunisia in the certain knowledge criminals have discovered they may land at will. They then pass on drugs to dealers who are never shy of exploiting the vulnerabilities of the young.

Apart from this, the nautical path seems to be an avenue terrorists could exploit to expand their operations across Europe.

We all need to be on our guard and the Maltese border needs to be protected day and night in my view. Any laxness should now be closed and indeed greater effort be made to ensure no vessel at all ever approaches Malta’s coastline without diligent clearance.

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