selves locked up in the infamous Tariq al-Sikka camp in Libya and testified that several individuals had died on board during the long journey back to the Libyan warzone. Though amounting to a text-book push-back operation, thus the illegal return, or refoulement, of people to a country where they are exposed to persecution, Malta’s prime minister insisted that the operation had in fact amounted to the “rescue of migrants”, without which “tens of lives would have died, because a Frontex plane just flew overhead and kept going.” Abela, who was investigated over the death of the twelve migrants, continued: “Malta’s ports are closed but it coordinated this rescue and ensured that the irregular migrants were taken to the port that was open” (Times of Malta, 2020a). On 9 April, the day the migrants had departed from the Libyan coast in the hope of reaching EUrope, the Maltese government declared its harbours ‘unsafe’ for migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Following Italy’s declaration two days prior, Malta suggested that migrants could no longer disembark due to the risk of exacerbating the Covid-19 pandemic and draining resources needed to combat the spread of the virus. Although merely one Corona-related death had been recorded in Malta at the time, the government saw itself “not in a position to guarantee the rescue of prohibited immigrants on board of any boats, ships or other vessels, nor to ensure the availability of a ‘safe place’ on the Maltese territory to any persons rescued at sea” (Government of Malta, 2020). Similar to the Italian government, the Maltese government used the Covid-19 pandemic to bar migrants from reaching EUropean soil, emphasising that they could not land in Malta for their own good and protection: Considering that any persons rescued at sea, who may also be suffering from the COVID19 contagious disease, must be protected from any threats to their life, and also must have their primary needs fulfilled including access to fundamental services in terms of health, logistics and transport […]. (Government of Malta, 2020) However, despite informing migrant rights activists that “[t]he policy of Malta because of Corona is that nothing can leave Malta and nothing can enter Malta and this includes migrants” (Alarm Phone 2020b), the Maltese authorities were unable to prevent more migrant crossings in the weeks following the supposed closure of harbours. Despite continuous tactics of nonassistance and delay, the Armed Forces of Malta were pressured into carrying out several rescue operations. And yet, although hundreds of migrants reached the Maltese Search and Rescue zone between April and May, they initially did not feature in arrival statistics compiled by the UN 11