Chris M, if ever an extreme event of a big magnitude (God forbid!) hits these islands, forcing its residents to seek refuge elsewhere, would you expect other safer countries to welcome us in their midst or not ?

You’re missing 2 points here, Mr Bonnici: 1) the number of Africans who cross over to Europe is a small fraction compared to the hundreds of thousands who flee their countries and take refuge in neighbouring countries. You can look up some figures on IDPs to get an idea of what we’re talking about; 2) those who pluck up courage and try to cross the Mediterranean never consider Malta as their final destination (so, they have no intention of “invading”..”us”).

No, it’s only NATO that kills foreigners in his book. So, no NATO involvement, no Fr Montebello comment.

Your argument carries the seed of its own destruction. Despite all evidence to the contrary you persist in believing that if you keep trying, you will succeed.

That is exactly why pushing boats back – even if it were legally, logistically and humanely possible – would never stop people trying to leave again.

So according to you Marlowe in the whole continent of Africa there isn’t one safe country for these people, and that your knowledgeable, genuinely empathic solution is to have them risk dying doing the crossing. Perfect!

Your “political solution” based on push back is nothing more than a polite way of saying that you favour a racist and/or a segregationist solution. It is inhumane and stupid. It is easy for you to blame others isn’t it.

You and your push back friends are as much to blame with your idle rhetoric. It foments hatred and further despair. The criminals whom you want in jail love push back because it adds to the risk. The higher the risk, the greater the gain. But no, you would’t realise that would you because it’s not your fault but the it’s the EU, the PN, the MLP, the UNHCR, the NGOs and so on.

In Nigeria 180 young school girls were abducted by a fundamentalist faction. Imagine if there was your daughter among those children. Imagine some of those girls found themselves on the way to the Med and you and your ilk are advocating ‘pushing back’. Perhaps being rescued here or on other EU borders could save just one from a life of prostitution and abuse.

And yes, let’s educate them – and do you think people living in countries where the per capita GDP is lower than 5000 dollars are concerned more with going to school than with locating food and water? And, who is going to enforce education on foreign soil?

It is very difficult to fund the strengthening of democracy in certain places. Western and Russian intervention in the Middle East and Asia is living proof of that.

That said, you are right with respect to attacking the culprits of organised trafficking. However, wherever there is strife, inequity and ignorance, you will find criminals ready to make a “kill.”

So, the real political solution is not easy but it is certainly not one to be based on pushback. Quit this racist/segregationist nonsense and, instead, direct your efforts to making a constructive contribution to the situation.

After all, we are all to blame if we do not contribute positively to the problem.

Start by feeling compassion and empathy, that is one way of contributing. Start by publicly defending these migrants in the way many people are doing here. Go and aid the Jesuits. Be polite and smile to the migrants that you meet in your daily life. Joke with them and get to know them. You would be surprised at what kind of difficult lives some have had and yet maintain a permanent smile and jovial approach to life. You’d learn a thing or two.

Most deserve our help.

@ Bonnici

Traffickers can be and are caught and prosecuted – when they are in the EU.

European countries have no jurisdiction over traffickers in countries of origin.