[VIDEO] Muscat tells UN ‘irregular migration is everyone’s problem’

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat took the opportunity to remind the international community that Malta could not be left alone to face irregular migration, during his statement at the United Nations General Assembly.

Muscat, who is currently in New York heading a Maltese delegation, urged the international community to do more for a phenomenon which he described as "the tragic evidence of our global failures".

"It would be easy flip channels once again; to park it in someone else's backyard. But it is not someone else's problem. Irregular migration, human trafficking and modern-day slavery are everyone's problem. And we all have to share in solving it, not only regionally but also globally," Muscat said.

The Maltese PM said Malta understood that irregular migrants were "caught in a web of poverty and exploitation".

"We feel for those fleeing prosecution and poverty, in search of safety and prosperity. And we do everything we can to provide them with the help they need, offering refuge and respite. Yet, Malta cannot do this alone," he insisted.

Muscat's speech came after a meeting he held with the UN secretary-general Ban ki-Moon on Wednesday during which he highlighted Malta's immigration burden.

The Prime Minister's attempt to get the issue on European and international agenda has also resulted in an attempted pushback in July which was blocked by an interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Muscat said he had wanted the European Union to "wake and smell the coffee".

During his speech in New York, Muscat also urged the world leaders that no sustainable development goals could be achieved without peace, without fight corruption and without the respect for human rights.

"We wanted to make poverty history and while we work towards that aim, we also have to question whether this has remained our priority. The poor have no luxury to afford us time to take our decisions," he said.

He called on the international community to forge ahead with dogged determination to reach these goals.

Malta, he said, had a long-standing history of solidarity with other nations all over the world.

"Our accession to the European Union took this solidarity a step further and my country assumed responsibilities and obligations in the context of overseas development assistance with developing countries," Muscat said.

"We are proud to form part of the EU which is the world's largest donor of development aid worldwide and we are committed to reach the goals and to be a reliable partner for those in need."

Quoting anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, Muscat said "overcoming poverty is not a task of charity... it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and can be overcome and eradicated by the actions human beings."

The Prime Minister pledged Malta's recurrent commitment in engaging with international partners in developing a post-2015 global development agenda that delivered on the promise of a better and fairer world for all.

"The news headlines may not shock us anymore but those living in fear for their lives and those of their families do not live to make the news. They look to survive.

"We firmly believed that the United Nations can and must do more to safeguard human dignity and to stir the conscience of humanity. No undertaking can be as fundamental as addressing the needs of the peoples of the world and no organisation is better placed to see to this than the United Nations."

Muscat warned that the Mediterranean Sea was "at a boiling point": "The next conflict - on scarce resources, over contested borders or even cultural offence - is just waiting to happen."

He insisted that the violation of human rights and shaky institutions had to be addressed if a new positive agenda for humankind were to be developed.

He also called upon the international community to look with compassions towards the victims of Syria.

"It is a humanitarian catastrophe with no end in sight, a horrendous and indiscriminate tragedy. Each child's death and each mother's wail should shame us all.

"We need to stop the wildfire. We need to stop the further descent into brutality and carnage. And those responsible must be brought to international justice."