Blockade sours relations as Italy bullies Malta into taking in all migrants in distress
Unconfirmed reports of a meeting between Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Opposition leader Joseph Muscat reached this newsroom yesterday, as high tension is building up between Malta and Italy on immigration.
The two leaders discussed the situation on the latest incident in which Italian army boats warded off a Maltese patrol boat with 66 migrants from entering Lampedusa.
Tension is at its highest level ever since the 1980 Saipem incident, when a Maltese-commissioned Italian oil rig was stopped by Libyan gunboats.
Thursday’s incident overturned Malta’s resolute stand in the Pinar incident last week, as Italy is now invoking bullying tactics in retaliation.
Last week, Malta steadfastly refused to take in 144 stranded migrants aboard the Pinar cargo ship, justifiably claiming that the Italian island of Lampedusa was the nearest, safe port of call.
Gonzi had to call counterpart Silvio Berlusconi to resolve the matter last week after Italian minister of the interior Roberto Maroni refused to take in the migrants.
But in an apparent U-turn of sorts, the government has now capitulated to a show of force by the Italian army.
On Thursday morning, an Armed Forces of Malta patrol boat had to be despatched on Thursday morning to assist 66 migrants on a dinghy 25 miles off Lampedusa, after Rome claimed it had no military assets available to deploy.
Upon its arrival on the scene, the AFM patrol boat found a helicopter of the Italian Guardia di Finanza hovering above the migrants.
But their entry to the Italian island of Lampedusa was blockaded by two Italian patrol boats. Sources said “government authorities” told the AFM patrol boat to head back with the migrants.
On Friday afternoon, Malta sent a note verbale to Italy, urging it to stop reneging on its international obligations for refusing to take in the migrants. A meeting also took place between Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and the Italian Ambassador to Malta, Paolo Andrea Trabalza.
The Italians claim Malta is responsible for all migrants saved in its vast search and rescue region. But Malta says it is responsible for the coordination of the rescue missions, and that distressed castaways are to be taken into the nearest, safe port of call, as per international law.
Italy is eager to capitalise on its show of strength in a bid to take further control of the Mediterranean waters and increase its influence in NATO. Taking control of Malta’s search and rescue region would not only increase its military influence: the SAR region’s airspace, also known as the Flight Information Region, is a source of revenue for Malta, since it provides information for the safe and efficient conduct of flights.
The pressure is now also on the European Commission to intervene, after the two member states clearly found no solution to the Pinar impasse. The dubious grounds being invoked by the Italians, which critics said were in breach of international law, risk souring relations between two EU member states with a historical bond of friendship, and even increasing further national antipathy towards the EU.
Since both Italy and Malta already are in active military cooperation, it is unclear now whether the souring of relations will affect search and rescue missions for distressed migrants, if both countries grow distrustful of each other.
Maroni’s separatist party Lega Nord on Friday accused Malta of breaching its international obligations. Senator Angela Maraventano said that the EU now had to do something and “make Malta understand it cannot violate agreements. They think it is all right to even exploit the humanity of the Lampedusani.”
A retort came from Arnold Cassola, the chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika, who said Roberto Maroni should stop trying to “ruin the traditional, long-standing friendship between Malta and Italy by using the immigration issue for electioneering for his populist party.
“Malta, Italy and Greece and the EU should sit around a table and discuss the vast search and rescue area and come to a solution to effectively patrol the area and save human lives at sea. We cannot afford to keep going on like this. Discussion under the aegis of the European Union is the only way forward. Cheap and populist electoral posturing should stop immediately,” Cassola said.
With Labour leader Joseph Muscat accusing Gonzi of being “spineless” as speculation of what had led to the U-turn by the Maltese government increased, the Nationalist Party accused him of being in favour of “drastic action and vetos”.
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