What is the government doing to prepare for a potential mass influx of refugees?

So far, our government has dealt with monied (pseudo) refugees from Libya by giving them visas and repeatedly renewing those visas with the result that Tigne Point is now Little Tripoli.

Which reminds me to raise the issue of what the government is doing about car insurance. All those cars with Libyan number-plates can’t possibly be insured properly under Maltese law. One of those I have seen repeatedly around Sliema looks like some kind of armoured Hummer.

But more to the point – as the situation deteriorates in Libya, in a very frightening way for those who live there, what is our government doing to prepare for a potential sudden mass influx of real refugees from terror?

I am not talking about the ongoing problem of migration from sub-Saharan Africa via Libya, but of Libyans themselves fleeing en masse as Islamic State perpetuates the terror and gains a stronger hold.

While many will try to flee over the borders to Egypt and Tunisia, others will head for Malta as they are doing already. They will not be locked up in detention camps – you don’t do that to a mass of war refugees.

Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesman Roberta Metsola spoke about this yesterday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned Mediterranean states that as things get worse in Libya, they should expect an influx of people fleeing that country.

“Malta must be proactive and prepare for a situation where thousands of people are forced to flee Libya. Malta needs to look at the EU mechanisms designed to cope with those influxes,” she said.