I live in a small island nation that is part of the EU but we are not far from the coast of North Africa. Every year thousands of people travel from sub Saharan Africa to arrive in Libya where they pay human traffickers to send them in flimsy over crowded dinghies to Europe.

It is a human tragedy that is occurring right now as it is estimated that thousands drown during the crossing. We manage to rescue some of these immigrants and it is always the same. The boats are full of men but there are just a very few women - some of them pregnant.

The traffickers place the women there as they know that when it is reported on our news that "Boat carrying migrants including 2 pregnant women has been sighted", a lot more pressure is put on our army to take in these people.

We have become so overcrowded but we cannot let people drown. If the army determines that the boat carrying the migrants is not in trouble it can let them go their way but if there are women, activists start clamouring for their 'rescue'.