If a migrant rescue vessel captain was accused of breaking the law for steering an unregistered boat, then "the law is an ass", Nationalist MP Mario de Marco says in a strong opinion piece on Saturday.
"Laws are meant to protect people, especially vulnerable members of society. When we start enforcing or creating laws to hurt people, or to allow people to suffer, then we are abusing the very concept of law. We are creating a legal washing machine to clean a dirty conscience," Dr de Marco, a lawyer and former PN deputy leader says in today's Talking Point on Times of Malta.
Dr de Marco was reacting to the arraignment of a German ship captain who stands accused of steering an unregistered boat within Maltese territorial waters without the necessary registration and licence.
Malta has joined Italy in barring NGO migrant rescue vessels from operating from its ports, as Italy's right-wing government intensifies its political rhetoric against migrants.
"We are citing the law to justify the growing cemeteries in the bottom of our surrounding sea. We are looking at legal texts instead of looking at the suffering and death of men, women and children... As a lawyer and politician, it hurts me to see politics and law used and abused to hurt others," Dr de Marco says.
It is ironic that while we are selling passports to millionaires, we are stopping migrants from entering our safe harbours
"Unfortunately, we in the developed world pick up the story at this end, when the person is fleeing. We ignore all that happens before. We become lawyers and policemen, forgetting in the process that we are also humans. And we do all we can to stop these people for looking for a better future. And we give them instead an eternal resting place in the bottom of the sea."
He says it was ironic that in the same days that parliament was debating the Good Samaritan Act, Malta was closing its ports to people who want nothing except a shot at life.
Read: Rescue ship Lifeline docks, most migrants claim to have escaped torture in Libya
"It is ironic that while we are selling passports to millionaires, we are stopping migrants from entering our safe harbours. It is ironic that while we are saying that we want to import tens of thousands of workers we arraigned the captain of a ship that rescued migrants. If this captain was breaking the law, then the law is an ass."
His sentiments echo those of former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who said he could not understand how the Maltese government could possibly justify stopping a spotter plane from going out to find people who are in danger of losing their lives.
However, their opinion appears not to resonate with that of PN leader Adrian Delia who has backed most of the government's actions in the wake of the recent crisis, citing the national interest.