Joseph Muscat

In his capacity as PM, Muscat bears functional responsibility for the decisions of the European Council from 03/2013 until 01/2020.

This includes the Council's decision in the summer of 2014 not to "europeanize" Mare Nostrum and its tacit agreement with the establishment of Triton (See: European Council report: 2014: Mare Nostrum).

Specifically, Muscat's gov't both backed the Italian threat to discontinue Mare Nostrum absent a Europeanization of the operation and later rejected any Europeanized operation under which it would have to take in any of the rescued people, claiming that Malta "didn't have the space" to take in anybody

Through the European Council conclusions in March 2015, Muscat also advocated for “strengthening Triton" (See European Council Report, 2014 – Mare Nostrum).

Muscat was aware of the inadequacy of Triton, stating in March 2015 that Triton was "practically nothing" compared to Mare Nostrum.

Under Muscat, the Maltese government was in favor of operation SOPHIA but under the condition that Malta not be transformed into a hotspot for migrants and that Malta wouldn’t have to take in any more migrants.

In early 2017, Muscat's government presented a non-paper on migration control at the Justice and Home Affairs Council. The paper suggested a border-crossing patrol on Libya’s coast in which Maltese and Libyan ships as well as Frontex (presumably under the auspices of Sophia) were supposed to “take intercepted migrant boats back to Libyan shores." (See Malta Report, Chapter III: Libya Involvement).

Under Muscat, the Maltese gov't in 2018 or 2019 reportedly negotiated a secret deal with the Libyan Coast Guard whereby the Armed Forces of Malta would coordinate with the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept migrants headed towards Malta (Muscat denies this) (See Malta Report, Chapter IV: Malta-Libya deal).

Muscat initially denied that Gafa—who himself admitted he was the Maltese gov'ts de facto envoy for cooperation with Libya and met with high-profile Libyan figures— was working for the PM's office.

Some reports in early 2016 suggest that Muscat and Renzi concluded a secret deal in which Italy would “pick up Malta’s share of migrant resuces in its search and rescue area” in exchange for “Malta surrendering oil exploration rights (see Malta Report, Malta-Italy Deal)

The suspect has repeateadly stated that NGO boats are a pull factor for smugglers and that NGOs were politicizing SAR operations by attempting to reach exiles before the Libyan coastguard did,
therefore “facilitating” smuggler activity. (See Malta Report, Criminalization of NGOs)

NGO criminalization happened under Muscat's watch. E.g., in 2018, Malta opened four criminal investigations into NGO rescue ships which at times disabled vessels from conducting SAR missions for several months (See Malta Report, Criminalization of NGOs).

Functional responsibility for various EU Council conclusions, including:

• 23 April 2015 conclusions, which call on EU to “prevent illegal migration flows…by work[ing] with regional partners in building capacity for maritime border management and search and rescue operations”

• June 2016 Council conclusions on the need to include training Libyan Coast Guard in Operation Sophia's mandate (See European Council Report: 2016)

• Muscat hosted the 2017 Malta conference, at which Council members called for EU to "train, equip and support the Libyan national coast guard" (See European Council Report: 2017: The Libyan Coastguards). Muscat reportedly advocated for the training of the Libyan coastguard (later calling it “one of the parts of state that functions” and saying that “what happens to people in Libya is a big issue but since its their territory, we let them do their job")  Prior to the summit, Muscat called for a Turkey-style deal with Libya

• June 2018 conclusions, which call on “all vessels... not [to] obstruct operations of the Libyan coastguard.” (See European Council Report: 2018)

Some training of the LYCG, carried out by Italy, took place in Malta during Muscat's tenure. (We have conflicting info on whether Malta also trained the LYCG inside Libya) 

Under Muscat, the Maltese gov't in 2018 or 2019 reportedly negotiated a secret deal with the Libyan Coast Guard whereby the Armed Forces of Malta would coordinate with the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept migrants headed towards Malta (Muscat denies this) (See Malta Report, Chapter IV: Malta-Libya deal)