Prime Minister Robert Abela’s ethical values have been called into question after he did not raise a finger to help migrants cramped inside a leaking rubber boat without any water, as it drifted for a number of days in Malta’s search and rescue area.
Eleven crew members on board an AFM patrol boat withheld assistance to the migrants following a unanimous decision taken by the cabinet that prevented rescue vessels from bringing people saved at sea into Malta.
Such behaviour, apart from being immoral, breaches the country’s obligation under international treaties to render assistance to people or vessels in distress at sea.
Tragic consequences ensued. Twelve migrants perished at sea while 51 who survived were taken back to Libya by means of a boat commissioned by the Maltese authorities, in breach of the fundamental international law principle of non-refoulement. Most likely, upon their forced repatriation, these individuals have been subjected to persecution, possibly by torture and rape.
Abela cannot be taken seriously when he says that the withholding of assistance to the migrants was a necessary measure to contain the country’s resources on the COVID-19 outbreak. If that had really been the case, he would not have allowed the spring hunting season to open, with the result that law enforcement personnel already engaged in the control of spread of the disease were further stretched by having to carry out inspections over thousands of hunters practising their hobby.
Instead of seeking diplomatic channels to put pressure on Europe to wake up and smell the coffee on the realities of the effect of migration on the country, Abela decided to exploit the coronavirus pandemic that resulted in the loss of innocent human lives.
Abela was taken to task by NGO Repubblika, that felt a moral obligation to speak out on behalf of the voiceless migrants who perished at sea by filing criminal complaints for homicide against him and the Armed Forces of Malta.
Like some sort of Donald Trump wannabe, Abela quickly retaliated in a disproportionate manner that fell way below the threshold of decency, by holding a press conference on the state-funded Television Malta during prime transmission time to launch a frontal attack against Repubblika. The entire cabinet sat behind him as a sign of support just as it supported his disgraced predecessor Joseph Muscat.
Abela’s speech to the nation was simply an exercise in authoritarian populism, where he tried to gain political mileage out of a tragedy by implicating the Nationalist opposition, simply because its justice spokesperson Jason Azzopardi had co-signed the criminal complaints in his personal professional capacity of lawyer.
Worse still, Abela’s broadcast to the nation was incendiary and it served to ignite xenophobic sentiment. He stroked the populist fire to instil anger and fear in the Maltese population, by alleging that Repubblika had undermined the government’s effort to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in the country.
Abela publicly vilified Repubblika by depicting it as an enemy of the nation with Azzopardi as the most villainous of them all. At the same time, he accorded himself the privileged status of the country’s last bastion of defence against the wickedness of the NGO.
High-profile Labour political figures carried on from where Abela left through social media messages that incited hatred against identifiable groups and individuals perceived as an obstacle to the prime minister’s decisions and actions.
Abela’s broadcast to the nation was incendiary and it served to ignite xenophobic sentiment- Denis Tanti
One message of a racist nature was posted by Labour diehard Alfred Grixti, the head of Malta’s social welfare services, who suggested seizing NGO migrant salvage boats and sinking them.
Quite understandably, this led to a chorus of condemnation of Grixti’s post, while requests for his removal from office were made by professionals and academics in the social-work sector. Even the agency employing Grixti distanced itself from his comment.
However, Social Solidarity Minister Michael Falzon, under whom Grixti falls, failed to condemn Grixti’s comment and insisted on keeping him in his job.
All Falzon had to say was that the comment, if anything, had helped to fill newspapers with other news than COVID-19. How shameful!
Denigration and marginalisation of migrant workers are at the centre of the populist game played by main exponents of the Labour government. Under the pretext of safeguarding jobs for Maltese nationals, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri angered anyone with a pinch of respect for human dignity by his statement on March 17, where he brazenly threatened foreign workers with deportation from the country unless they return home immediately, if they find themselves jobless.
Schembri’s statement reminds us of another racist comment made by former Labour Prime Minister Joseph Muscat during a televised debate, when he came out with his political gaffe that foreign workers should be the ones breaking their backs working in the sun, picking up the rubbish in the streets and carrying out other unskilled jobs.
Muscat reasoned out that while they paid rent, taxes and one-sixth of the country’s total social security contributions, most of the foreign workers would not be reaping the fruit of their contributions as they would be leaving the country before actually receiving a pension.
Abela, who was legal counsel to Muscat during the time when corruption was perpetuated at the highest levels of the government, had promised that as head of government he would set a new benchmark against which ethics and good governance would be measured. The facts show the opposite to be true.
Denis Tanti is former assistant director in the Ministry for Health.