Twenty years ago, several Ethiopians, including unaccompanied minors, arrived on our shores yearning for a better future.
Over the years, they rebuilt their lives from scratch, worked tirelessly while paying their taxes, started families and did their utmost to make Malta their new home. In the meantime, they made new friends, neighbours and work colleagues. In short, they became part of our communities.
Although their application for refugee status was denied, the government still granted them temporary protection status, allowing them to not only work here legally but also set up their own businesses.
Sadly, 20 years later, the police arrested them. Their arrest, detention and the threat of being deported is unjust, discriminatory, inhumane and very cruel. Does it mean that their children who were born and raised here are also to be deported? Malta is the only home they know. Whole families risk being deported.
The Labour government should be ashamed of itself. This is another example of being strong with the weak and it exposes Labour’s hypocrisy.
On one hand, the government sold our citizenship to the wealthy, some even with shady backgrounds and, then, it treated vulnerable people, whose only fault is that 20 years ago they dared to hope, as criminals. Does it have to take us 20 years to make up our minds?
It would be a grave mistake to confuse the third-country nationals working among us with these refugees. The two issues are completely different.
For the past 11 years, the Labour government based its economic model on the importation of third-country nationals and on cheap labour, without doing the necessary long-term planning. Thanks to this mismanagement and short-sightedness, we are in this difficult situation.
Sadly, some people opt to be racists and have applauded these arrests. If hunters and construction lobby groups are appeased in return for votes, is it now the racists’ turn to receive such a courtesy? Are they the new emerging blackmail vote lobby to be pampered?
It would be a grave mistake to confuse third-country nationals working among us with these Ethiopian refugees- Albert Buttigieg
We must rebut any xenophobic policies and language. Racism demeans us all.
On my part, I did not get involved in politics to sit on the fence. I stand firm in my resolve to be an assertive voice for what is good and righteous. Doing and saying what is right is not always popular and/or easy. However, replacing our humanity with politics will only render us soulless.
It will be a disservice to honest politics.
Human dignity is not based on opinion polls but an intrinsic value to be safeguarded in all circumstances.
Thus, I wholeheartedly offer my support to a number of civil society groups in calling on the government to reconsider its decision regarding the Ethiopians and acknowledge that the lengthy delay in processing their application warrants special consideration.
My sincere appeal to the government is to create a pathway to regularise the status of those who have lived and worked here for several years. We must work towards a humane integration policy and reduce long application processes (that might create false aspirations), rather than opting for a deportation strategy. This is possible, as the example of other EU member states clearly shows.
My plea also goes to people of goodwill for them to step out from their comfort zones. Silence and indifference will get us nowhere.
If we truly desire to live in a humane society, then let us stand together against racism in all its forms, whatever the cost may be.
Our message must be loud and clear.
Albert Buttigieg is the Nationalist Party’s spokesperson for family affairs and social solidarity.