Joseph Muscat calls out Adrian Delia on ‘chilling’ migration statistics

Joseph Muscat has called out Nationalist MP Adrian Delia for using the word "chilling" to describe the fact that six towns in Malta have a majority foreign population, asking the PN which non-Maltese they would kick out first. 

Speaking in parliament, Delia quoted figures published by the National Statistics Office in August that showed foreign nationals outnumber Maltese people in Sliema, St Julian’s, Gżira, Pietà, Msida and St Paul’s Bay. He described the statistics as “tat-tkexkix” (chilling). 

Responding to Delia on Facebook on Thursday, the former prime minister said that while he would not discuss the merits of the statistics quoted, he did not want to leave the shadow minister for finance’s comments unanswered. 

“At least three of the places he mentioned, namely Sliema, St Julian's and St Paul's Bay, have always been a mecca for foreigners who retire or come to work in Malta. And if one checks the electoral register, one finds that in the local council elections they have always had the highest number of British registered in Malta,” Muscat wrote. 

Muscat pointed out that Sliema and St Julian’s host a substantial number of foreigners who work in the igaming sector, “people who are amongst the highest earners taxpayers and spenders in our country. Of course, the type of narrative that Dr Delia used was intended to make listeners not think of these people.” 

The former prime minister, who is currently facing court proceedings on multiple serious charges including money-laundering, fraud, bribery, conspiracy and corruption in public office, added that if Delia had limited himself to saying there are towns where landlords are known to overcrowd their properties with tenants, or that there was a “minority” of employers who exploited their workers, then he would have agreed with him. 

Muscat congratulated Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri and Parliamentary Secretary Andy Ellul for facilitating an agreement between the General Workers Union and the Association of Food Couriers.  

He ended by putting several questions to Delia and the Nationalist Party, asking, among other things, whether the opposition would expel foreigners, kick out gaming companies and what they would say to the children of marriages between Maltese and foreigners. 

The Muscat administration is widely seen as having set Malta on a path of unprecedented reliance on foreign workers, with policy decisions taken soon after 2013 accelerating the large-scale importation of labour from both EU and third countries.

Government reforms that prioritised rapid economic expansion - particularly in construction, hospitality and low-wage services - saw the number of foreign workers surge within a few years, with official figures showing the cohort more than tripled between 2013 and 2016.

While the administration argued the shift was necessary to address acute labour shortages, the rapid influx later raised concerns about exploitation, strained infrastructure and mounting social pressures highlighted in subsequent Times of Malta investigations.