Can somebody explain why so much publicity about migrants rescued by the Aquarius and who eventually landed in Malta as a goodwill gesture by the government? The migrants were allocated to a number of countries except Malta.

Every time migrants leave Malta to settle elsewhere, a lot is said about it on TV. A couple of weeks ago, we heard that the Armed Forces of Malta rescued more than 300 migrants. In that case, the publicity was minimal and we were told nothing on what happened to the survivors and whether other countries had showed solidarity and accepted them.

This is why I will not vote in next year’s European elections because this issue had been dragging on for too long and will persist once the new European Parliament is elected. Nothing will change unless something is done before.

We citizens have a weapon and that is the vote. We should use it properly either by abstaining or by invalidating it unless this hot issue is not solved before the election. We must stand together on this.

This government has yet to fulfil its promise of repatriating migrants to their countries of origin once conflict or civil war was over. Civil war in Eritrea or Ethiopia, for instance, has stopped, so now is the time to start sending back migrants originating from both countries.

Along the years, the government has failed to say exactly how many migrants from Africa is Malta hosting. If you take into consideration the total number of migrants here, we would realise that, per capita, we have more that any other EU state and that is a shame if we are supposed to be equal in every aspect within the EU.