In his recent meeting with his Libyan counterpart Fayez al-Sarraj, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was wrong in saying Libyans are “close friends, almost family”.

Muscat should avoid doing the same mistake his predecessor, Dom Mintoff, once did when he said the Maltese and the Libyans were blood brothers.

Let us stop cosying up to a country that does not know how to live peacefully. Their history speaks for itself. The Prime Minister should have insisted with the Libyan leader to urgently control the way migrants are treated while waiting to board a boat to get them to Europe.

It is high time Maltese governments kept some distance from a country whose main aim is to get help from tiny Malta when it is blessed with natural resources. If anyone wants to know how Libyans can be treated as friends and family, one should visit the Corradino prison where the majority of foreign prisoners are Libyan nationals.