Florian Geyer
18thJune2005, 10:46
Talking Point
Still in the same boat?
Fr Paul Pace, SJ
Boatloads of undocumented immigrants have started arriving on our shores... just like last year and the year before and the year before that. Once the winter months are over, the crossing season starts, to nobody's surprise.
Yet, our reaction as a society is still the emergency one we managed years ago, when the first big influx arrived at Xlendi bay. Years have passed and we seem as unprepared and unwilling to accept the reality that simply cannot be wished away.
The reasons that push these fellow human beings to face such perils persist. The wars in Africa are still raging, from Ivory Coast to Darfur, so that tens of thousands are forced to flee against their will. Even those few hundreds who end up on our shores would have fled their countries and crossed the Sahara not with Malta in mind but with Italy and mainland Europe. Yet their plans went wrong at the last stage of their long voyage because they were unlucky enough to have been on a boat that broke down.
We have no control over the situation in Africa but we need to ask ourselves whether our reaction is really adequate. Most of us prefer to wish it away, either by not thinking about it or by writing angry letters urging the government not to accept these people, without saying how this can be done short of shooting them or letting them drown. These xenophobic voices sometimes seem to be the only ones to be heard and it is no wonder that the Member of the European Parliament candidate with an explicitly racist programme obtained so many votes.
Could it be that these voices have frightened our leaders into silence? All European politicians know how easy it is to drum up support for racist programmes by playing on people's fears. Whatever the answer, racist parties and websites still go largely unchallenged as they gain a surer footing in our culture, in our political parties and in the media. Recent action taken by the police is a very welcome first step.
A widely publicised National Conference on Irregular Immigration was held last February, a glossy document was printed containing a Cabinet approved policy in many aspects significantly more liberal than the present one. A task force, made up of government, opposition and NGO representatives was set up. Yet, has anything changed since then, before the travelling season started again? Even the inquiry into the January incidents at Safi, which the Prime Minister wanted concluded "as soon as possible", still seems to be plodding along.
It seems that our political leaders are not the only ones to have made this option for silence. It is quite paradoxical that while the NGOs working with refugees and detainees are mostly Church organisations - the Emigrants' Commission and the Jesuit Refugee Service - our Church leaders have said very little during these years on this new situation. When the Church chooses solidarity as one of its fundamental values, one would expect something more robust and prophetic.
Have trade unions and employers associations, that publicly agree that the exploitation of foreign workers is unacceptable, ever taken any decisive action to defend victims of this form of abuse?
The only honourable exception to this state of stasis is the generous efforts by Agenzija Appogg to attain acceptable levels of decency at the open centres.
One of the highest achievements of the 20th century was the idea that human rights are universal. Nevertheless, we seem to be getting used to making exceptions in the case of irregular migrants and asylum seekers, although these rights are enshrined in national and international legislation.
For the second year running, Malta has been criticised in Amnesty International's Report 2005 for its policy of detaining asylum seekers and it will certainly feature in next year's too. Considerable numbers still live in tents and legal aid offered to asylum seekers is as inadequate as ever. No wonder the media is not allowed into the detention centres! One hopes that our MPs and MEPs are familiar with what Amnesty is talking about.
Maltese society must wake up to its responsibilities, something that would incidentally lend credibility to our calls for responsibility-sharing. For, as the poet said, when the bell tolls, do not ask for whom it tolls, for it tolls for you.
The author is acting director of the Jesuit Refugee Service Malta.
Still in the same boat?
Fr Paul Pace, SJ
Boatloads of undocumented immigrants have started arriving on our shores... just like last year and the year before and the year before that. Once the winter months are over, the crossing season starts, to nobody's surprise.
Yet, our reaction as a society is still the emergency one we managed years ago, when the first big influx arrived at Xlendi bay. Years have passed and we seem as unprepared and unwilling to accept the reality that simply cannot be wished away.
The reasons that push these fellow human beings to face such perils persist. The wars in Africa are still raging, from Ivory Coast to Darfur, so that tens of thousands are forced to flee against their will. Even those few hundreds who end up on our shores would have fled their countries and crossed the Sahara not with Malta in mind but with Italy and mainland Europe. Yet their plans went wrong at the last stage of their long voyage because they were unlucky enough to have been on a boat that broke down.
We have no control over the situation in Africa but we need to ask ourselves whether our reaction is really adequate. Most of us prefer to wish it away, either by not thinking about it or by writing angry letters urging the government not to accept these people, without saying how this can be done short of shooting them or letting them drown. These xenophobic voices sometimes seem to be the only ones to be heard and it is no wonder that the Member of the European Parliament candidate with an explicitly racist programme obtained so many votes.
Could it be that these voices have frightened our leaders into silence? All European politicians know how easy it is to drum up support for racist programmes by playing on people's fears. Whatever the answer, racist parties and websites still go largely unchallenged as they gain a surer footing in our culture, in our political parties and in the media. Recent action taken by the police is a very welcome first step.
A widely publicised National Conference on Irregular Immigration was held last February, a glossy document was printed containing a Cabinet approved policy in many aspects significantly more liberal than the present one. A task force, made up of government, opposition and NGO representatives was set up. Yet, has anything changed since then, before the travelling season started again? Even the inquiry into the January incidents at Safi, which the Prime Minister wanted concluded "as soon as possible", still seems to be plodding along.
It seems that our political leaders are not the only ones to have made this option for silence. It is quite paradoxical that while the NGOs working with refugees and detainees are mostly Church organisations - the Emigrants' Commission and the Jesuit Refugee Service - our Church leaders have said very little during these years on this new situation. When the Church chooses solidarity as one of its fundamental values, one would expect something more robust and prophetic.
Have trade unions and employers associations, that publicly agree that the exploitation of foreign workers is unacceptable, ever taken any decisive action to defend victims of this form of abuse?
The only honourable exception to this state of stasis is the generous efforts by Agenzija Appogg to attain acceptable levels of decency at the open centres.
One of the highest achievements of the 20th century was the idea that human rights are universal. Nevertheless, we seem to be getting used to making exceptions in the case of irregular migrants and asylum seekers, although these rights are enshrined in national and international legislation.
For the second year running, Malta has been criticised in Amnesty International's Report 2005 for its policy of detaining asylum seekers and it will certainly feature in next year's too. Considerable numbers still live in tents and legal aid offered to asylum seekers is as inadequate as ever. No wonder the media is not allowed into the detention centres! One hopes that our MPs and MEPs are familiar with what Amnesty is talking about.
Maltese society must wake up to its responsibilities, something that would incidentally lend credibility to our calls for responsibility-sharing. For, as the poet said, when the bell tolls, do not ask for whom it tolls, for it tolls for you.
The author is acting director of the Jesuit Refugee Service Malta.