An aerial view of the island nation of Malta, Aug. 21, 2012. Malta has the highest ratio of immigrants per capita of any European Union member, but it lacks the resources to house them and cannot let them move off the island. (Photo: Gianni Cipriano / The New York Times)
The Mediterranean has been described by Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as a "graveyard" as migrants from Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, seek to cross over to Europe to flee various hardships partly attributed to the legacies of Eurocentric colonial and neocolonial politics.
It is estimated that over the last two decades, around 20,000 people drowned while being smuggled over. The European Union, through its "fortress" politics, centering around the notion of "security," has much to answer for in this continuous human tragedy.
Maltese scholar Peter Mayo, author of, among many other books, The Politics of Indignation (Zero Books, 2012), discusses these and related issues in an interview with Croatian journalist Hrvoje Šimičević.
