BirdLife Malta is to appeal to the Maltese government to take urgent action to protect Malta’s migratory birds.

The NGO said that “in 2012 Malta, as a member of the European Union, is failing to meet its legal obligations to protect migratory birds under the Birds Directive and is similarly neglecting its obligations as a signatory state of the Convention on Migratory Species, which explicitly requires that Malta take measures to prevent the illegal shooting of migrating raptors (birds of prey).”

BirdLife Malta said that it has “witnessed an increase in illegal hunting of protected birds since the start of the hunting season over the same period in 2011.”

Bob Elliot, head of the RSPB’s Investigation Team, has joined BirdLife Malta in its monitoring of the illegal hunting situation for the last five years.

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