Many foreign workers coming from developing countries are being exploited and treated like slaves, and the government is not doing anything to stop this, Nationalist MP Graziella Attard Previ said in parliament on Wednesday.
Speaking during the adjournment, Attard Previ said many third-country workers and migrants live in a state of “limbo” as some cannot go back to their country but do not have a future in Malta.
“Hundreds end up being exploited and abused and the government allows this modern-day form of slavery,” she said.
Up until June 2022, employment agency Jobsplus registered over 50,591 third-country nationals working in Malta - with around 14% of those working in the construction industry.
The number of TCNs working in that sector had jumped by over 1,000 when compared to the previous year.
As the number of foreign workers on the island continues to grow, more light is shed on the abuse they face.
Attard Previ said she recently spoke to a 30-year-old Sri Lankan man who has been working in Malta for the past two years.
"I asked him if he is happy living here, and his answer left me perplexed," she said.
"He told me that while he is earning more money here, he misses his family back home, and he feels useless here. He told me that to earn a decent living he works three jobs, wakes up at 5am and goes back to bed past midnight. He ends up sending €200 to his family back in Sri Lanka every month."
She pointed out that while the government continued to exploit such workers, who had very few rights, it gave its blessing to millionaires buying Maltese passports, many of whom never stepped foot on the island.
“These foreign workers work long hours, are left frustrated, have no social life and very little rest. Is this all we think about? Money? And not the rights and dignity these people deserve?”
Attard Previ said that there is no empathy for such workers and that the economic model is based on the exploitation of foreign workers.
She appealed for change for the economic model to become more sustainable.
Even the Finance Minister acknowledged this was needed, she said.
“We should be creating new industries that create new jobs and not exploits our workers.
“When money, and not the person, is at the centre of politics, that is when we can say we have lost all sense of social justice, and this is what has happened to our government.”