[WATCH] Christine Cassar: ‘Government is picking on vulnerable groups’

Government is systematically targeting certain “vulnerable” communities when rounding up people to deport them, Moviment Graffitti activist Christine Cassar believes.

The Ethiopian community has been shocked after many individuals, who have been legally living and working in Malta for up to 19 years, are being arrested at their workplaces, detained, and informed they will be deported back to Ethiopia.

Five Ethiopian men have been detained at the Safi Detention Centre, following a series of government raids on the island’s long-established migrant community.

Branding this an operation which has “terrorised” migrant communities across the country, Cassar tells me it is a product of a government whose operations are slow to react. The activist says the action is already having repercussions, with migrants who spoke to the NGO telling them that they are scared to go to work out of fear that they might be arrested.

She says if government and the authorities want to crackdown on people residing in Malta illegally, after failing to be granted refugee status, it should do so immediately and efficiently.

“They had been granted a work permit, were regularly employed, were paying National Insurance and were paying taxes. It is shocking,” she says.

She also argues that in a context were thousands of third-country nationals are being brought into the country to fill jobs, deporting five people who have been trained to carry out their job, “just doesn’t make sense”.

“What will change if they are removed? What is the end result? Nothing,” she says.

Cassar also insists people should look at the humanity of such situations. She points out the children these people have spent all their life in Malta, have grown up as Maltese and follow Maltese customs.

She insists there is no benefit in ignoring their reality.

“They will end up being repatriated to a country they have no knowledge of,” she says. “Or they will end up growing up frustrated and angry adults, which down the line would serve as a bigger burden on society.”

Ultimately, the NGO believes the right thing to do is grant these individuals citizenship.

The following is an excerpt from the interview.  

The full interview can also be followed on Facebook and Spotify.

We are speaking about a situation where these people are at their place of work and all of a sudden, a policeman walks in and detains them... 

Policeman? A whole squad of police officers were sent to pick up a single individual. Their reasoning is that he is in Malta irregularly. What people are not understanding is that these people are working within legal parameters, are paying taxes, and that is why we are shocked.

People might not understand the humanity of this situation. We are speaking about people who are not ‘bumming off our taxes and social services’ but are contributing, and are part of the community, right? 

Yes, in fact one of the five speaks fluent Maltese, and others might as well. Government decided suddenly to turn on these people who have been here for decades. If you want to enact some sort of policy to return people who have been seeking asylum and have not been granted that status, you should have carried out the return process at the time, not let all these years pass, told them to work, to settle, forge relationships, told them to pay taxes - as they should, and then all of a sudden kick them out.

What do you want to see happen? 

First, the five should be released as that is the most important thing. There should also be a way; a structure or a policy, which addresses these individuals who have been seeking asylum in Malta but have not been granted that status. They should be allowed to establish themselves, in a legal manner, in the country. This way they can be given peace of mind that these actions against them do not continue.

Are you saying that the impact of these raids is that people who have been in Malta for years, who have established themselves in the community, are living in fear that one fine day police might show up at their place of work to detain them? 

Exactly, they have terrorised these communities so much that we know of individuals who are not showing up at work because they are so afraid that it might happen to them. They tell you they do not want to go back to a country which they do not know. If you have spent 20 years away from that country, it is no easy feat to return.

When you bring up these arguments to the government and the authorities, what is their reply?

Let me tell you what the [Home Affairs] Minister said in the Kusi Dismark case earlier this year. He said they should go back to their country – and I say this ironically because it is not their country – voluntarily, and then if they want to come back, they can apply for a work permit.  

During last Tuesday’s press conference, a manager at one of the companies where one of the five was working, told those present that around two years ago the same thing happened to another individual, who the company wanted to retain in its work force, and they spoke to the government and the minister. They had told them they “understood them”. They then took onboard the government’s advice and started looking into bringing the individual back by paying for the ticket back, and helped him apply for the work permit, but after the whole process, the request was denied. It is not true that they can leave voluntarily and come back.  

It just does not make sense. If you have a worker, who is already trained to do a certain job, to send him to his country of origin and then go through the process of bringing him back. This is all in the context of the ongoing issue surrounding the importation of hundreds of third-country nationals for work. It’s a joke.

You are using the term “terrorism” a lot. Do you think there are patterns in how these cases are being carried out, where you have targeting of certain communities because you know it is easier to round up black people, and even in the public eye it makes you look good? 

Without a doubt government is picking on certain vulnerable groups. Government is carrying out two types of raids - the type which we have seen been deployed against these Ethiopians, which it says is voluntary repatriation, when it is not.   

And then you have spot check raids which have raised questions on how they are being carried out. On what basis are you stopping people? How they look? Where you saw them.

My question is whether government is finding it easier to stop a black man in Marsa rather than a white man in St Julian’s? 

That is what we think is happening. The places they are targeting are frequented by people from certain communities.

Are you saying these people should be given Maltese citizenship? 

Why not? They are more Maltese than those buying their citizenship through the IIP scheme. If you have money, and have no connection whatsoever with the country, you are granted citizenship, but having lived in the community, being involved in traditions like feasts, does not qualify you for citizenship.  

Their children are now growing up, and so you have a whole group of second-generation migrants who have grown up in Malta, as Maltese and now face repatriation to a country they have no knowledge of. They are Maltese children.