From the online comments:
Woman deported after employer failed to register her job with JobsPlus
Her immigration status in Malta was left in legal limbo for four years
The third country national seems to always get the brunt of things. Stricter penalties are required against employers who purposely do not do things by the book. – Paul Giorgio
Arrest the agencies that are using these persons, then dumping them into the local slave market. – Carmel Ellul
The system here is way too old! You break the law, ruin someone’s life and all you get is a lousy €1,200 fine. – George Vassallo
The woman who was deported worked in a hairdresser’s salon. Photo: Shutterstock.com
What about her employer? Why is no action being taken against him for abusing her? Even if she is a TCN, she is still a human being! The things some people do for money is disgusting. – J. Pace
And that is how the victims still bear the brunt of injustice in this country. The employer was handled a €1.2K fine (which they would probably recuperate in a week) while this woman was treated like a slave, paid peanuts and had to leave the country despite no fault of her own other than not being cunning enough to work the system like her employer did.
If they do this to TCNs now, they will soon do it to us tomorrow. – Danika Vella
I cannot understand how we call ourselves a civilised country but then we have such a disorganised immigration system. So why aren’t Identità and JobsPlus connected so when the TCN is processing the paperwork via Identità, JobsPlus is informed immediately. There is the same disorganisation within the tax department. If you change your address you have to inform all offices separately.
Some readers commented on how the employer got away with a slap on the wrist. Let’s weigh the two matters ‒ on one hand the employer fails to file a paper with JobsPlus (however, maintained the annual work permit valid) and gets a €1,200 fine while the employee gets deported. Is this justice? – P. Mangion
Why should anyone, local or TCN, be held responsible for the mistakes made by their employer? These are the type of issues like so many others that our politicians should be solving, they are ultimately responsible. – Joe Scerri
I fail to understand why the Criminal Code does not have/make provisions for prison terms for what technically boils down to extortion, theft and modern-day slavery. – David Masters