refugee agency (UNHCR Malta, 2020) for Malta where for April and May merely 138 arrivals were registered. This discrepancy in crossings and arrivals was the consequence of a novel measure introduced by the Maltese government. About 425 migrants rescued off several boats in distress were held outside Maltese territorial waters on chartered ‘Captain Morgan’ cruise ships, depriving the detained not only of their freedom but also of their right to claim asylum. On board, the situation for the rescued worsened over time, with some reaching out to the Alarm Phone (2020c) to report of suicide attempts and hunger strikes. Countering criticism, Maltese government officials such as the Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, emphasised that the detained received “every possible care” on board, including medical assistance, despite the obvious exacerbation of Covid-19 health risks through collective confinement (Times of Malta, 2020b). Soon after word spread on the protests on board, a video started to make the rounds, showing the rescued migrants celebrating and chanting the anthem of the government party: ‘Viva l-Labour’. The offshore detention measure, which lasted about five weeks and cost 1.7 million Euro, not only considerably exceeded the routine two-week Covid-19 quarantine period but failed to convince other EU member states to relocate rescued migrants, which the Maltese government had strongly called for, not least by attaching a banner reading ‘European solidarity’ on one of the detention ferries. Still, after disembarkation, Malta’s prime minister informed Amnesty International (2020: 12), that “Ferry boats were used as a quarantine area, during the period that the Closed and Open Centres [for reception of asylum-seekers and migrants] were subject to considerable pressure due to the influx in arrivals” and that, “Once the period of quarantine elapsed, on the 6th June 2020, the migrants disembarked in Malta and the asylum process initiated immediately”. Amnesty International points out, however, that “no end date was ever set for the detention of the rescued people and no legal grounds [were] ever articulated, making the measure an unlawful deprivation of liberty.” Despite amplifying deterrence measures at sea in the name of protecting migrants and citizens alike, the Maltese government was ultimately unable to prevent migrant arrivals and failed to enforce its ‘unsafe harbour’ policy. When groups of arriving migrants were tested positive for Covid-19 in July 2020 though erased from Malta’s national Covid-19 statistics following the European Centre for Disease Control’s approval in August 2020 - the depiction of migrants as Corona-spreaders took flight, reinforcing the Maltese government’s interest in reinstalling offshore quarantine facilities. Greece’s discriminatory lockdown of refugee camps and hotspots 12