After hardball failed, Bartolo asks EU for ‘solidarity’ to ward off eurosceptic wave over migration

First Malta accused the NGOs. Then it created a migrant holding centre on private boats at sea. Now foreign minister Evarist Bartolo is warning the EU of Maltese ‘exiteers’

Foreign minister Evarist Bartolo with EU external relations commissioner Josep Borrell. Photo: Ray Attard
Foreign minister Evarist Bartolo with EU external relations commissioner Josep Borrell. Photo: Ray Attard

Malta’s foreign minister has written to EU counterparts requesting the relocation of over 400 migrants and asylum seekers taken in to Malta.

The boat migrants were rescued at sea by the Armed Forces of Malta, but in an unprecedented move, the government refused to accord them the right to make an asylum claim and instead held the migrants aboard four privately-chartered ferries for five weeks.

The situation was untenable for the detainees and the crew, as tensions grew out at sea.

Writing on Facebook, foreign minister Evarist Bartolo said he had asked counterparts to “move quickly and shoulder their responsibility” now that the migrants had been brought ashore.

“Those among us who work towards decisions like these have been weakened and lost credibility when there is no EU solidarity. Every vacuum will be filled up by those who want Malta to leave the EU or turn against it,” Bartolo said.

Bartolo addressed Facebook commenters who were turning their sights on the EU by saying that had Malta not been an EU member, boat migrants would still be sent in the direction of Malta.

“We would have been worse off had we not been in the EU,” Bartolo said. “In the EU we can turn on other member states to work towards a concrete form of solidarity. They are not showing much of it. If the situation does not change, it will take people away from the EU… this support cannot be taken for granted.”

The Maltese government’s strategy has been to both demonise migrant rescue charities like Sea-Watch for succouring migrants right outside the Libyan search and rescue area; as well as mounting criticism towards the EU by way of ferrying out private boats such as the Captain Morgan cruise ferry, with an EU banner saying ‘EU solidarity’.

The stunt has brought about criticism from the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner and in the end yielded no relocation of migrants from other member states.

Malta’s hardline stance was first motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic after Italy shut its ports. But the island recently lifted most of its restrictions as the infection rate decreased.

The European Commission has been sluggish in addressing the island’s concerns on the arrivals of migrants.

On Sunday 7 June, on the 101th anniversary of the bread riots that sparked Malta’s long road to independence, the migrants were brought in after threatening to commandeer the boats after five weeks out at sea.