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Migrant pushbacks | ‘We wanted Europe to wake up and smell the coffee’ – Muscat
Prime Minister says provocative action to deport asylum seekers has put migration burden on EU agenda.
10 July 2013, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
2 min read
Joseph Muscat said the EU had to take note of Malta's migration burden.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today said the European Union had to "wake up" to Malta's immigration burden, in an interview on Al Jazeera English a day after his provocative action to deport a group of 45 asylum seekers without having placed a claim for protection.
The pushback was blocked by an interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights, which has demanded the government to explain why it planned to deport the asylum seekers before considering their claims.
Muscat indicated a scale-back in his intentions to carry out the pushback. "Even when we were at this particular juncture - to consider all options - we were rescuing people at sea. We will meet our obligations, because we are totally committed to our international obligations," Muscat said.
The prime minister added that he was sure that the action had made the EU stand up and pay attention to Malta's migration burden.
"We considered all options and we took this decision, to consider all options, because we wanted Europe to wake and smell the coffee, and I believe we managed because finally this humanitarian and Mediterranean tragedy is back on the agenda," Muscat said.
"There is a feeling among our people that we have been abandoned [by the EU] while we are rescuing these people being left to sink at sea, and this is why we made this conscious decision."
Muscat complained at the lack of solidarity from the EU, saying this had left his government with no room but to "consider all options" as he described a decision yesterday to send 45 migrants on two Air Malta flights bound to Mitiga airport, in Libya.
"The EU has been quick to rescue its banks, and we have contributed financially to bailouts. Why should it not be as quick to rescue people as well? The burden cannot be left to us, a small member state, alone."
In brief comment to MaltaToday following a lengthy debate in parliament yesterday, Muscat reiterated that everyone should shoulder the responsibility for how things developed yesterday evening.
Even though pushbacks are deemed illegal by the European Court of Human Rights and condemned by international human rights institutions, it was "one of the options" Joseph Muscat's government was considering in order to convince Europe that Malta needed help.
He said that given the European Court of Human Rights had now specifically stopped Malta from deporting the migrants, the government would now "shoulder the responsibility for not excluding that possibility".
"Likewise, responsibility should also be shouldered by those who led to that decision [the Court's injunction]," Muscat said.
He said Malta would continue to make its arguments while following what the ECHR says.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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Smelling the coffee is not a racist expression as coffee can be white or black.
Emmanuel Mallia •
What the UNHCR and their NGOs allies, are doing is showing that we ,the Maltese people on the side of those organising these illegal ( muslim) tips ! Firstly, they are sending muslim pregnant woman on every trip so that they can start a solid local muslim community, and one fine day, they will strike, just like Al-queda. Secondly, this process is already onging. Many local garages are being given the go ahead by MEPA to be used as muslim mosques ! They are mushrooming everywhere. The latest one was opened only last week at Qawra, with the blessings of MEPA.
Emmanuel Mallia •
Well done ! Many of these migrants phone their relatives and friends to follow them here. If we provide them with above average living conditions, we will be invaded ! And, why so many muslim woman are coming here pregnant ? In a few years time, we will have a muslim uprising here !
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" ... sending a journalist to lead a country into Europe." Is this real? Are there still people who think like this in 2013? Did the present super nation have a peanut vendor as president? And a film actor, etc? Our previous leader, a lawyer by profession, sent the country into shambles and lost the election by a mammoth refusal of the citizens!! Oh well, to each his own!
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Joseph Muscat has lost thousand of socialist votes in one fell swoop - it is conservative governments who send migrants back so how can he emulate them. Pity that the working class vote for PL because he managed to convince the uneducated electorate with his gimmicks. What a mistake - sending a journalist to lead a country into Europe.
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There is no doubt that political opportunism obliges, this human tragedy is being turned into political ambush and opportunity.
Because of its geopolitical location, its constrained size and means, Malta is as much victim as the immigrants themselves and should not play the victim and the hero at the same time.
But Europe is definitely NOT sleeping and there is no coffee to be smelled in the treat of “Mediterranean boat people” pushback which is boomerang political blackmail at best. The EU leaders are no idiots and they surely know very well what they are doing!
Our courageous academics should know that immigration is a disguised south-north digital-age slavery whereby the would-be slaves ultimately pay for their own trip with a dream of return on their investment in the form of better future life for themselves and their offspring and families.
Moreover, the immigration crisis in the Mediterranean and elsewhere reflects the cynicism of the international community that prop up brutal dictators and warlords and fuel conflicts in poverty stricken countries instead of pro-actively promoting peace, security, stability and prosperity as the only credible and sustainable solution to the lucrative human trafficking at its core.
While the spectacular pushback approach may earn some publicity in the immediate terms, it will require a similar pullback policy to repair the boomerang effect that will surely come back to haunt Malta on the international stage in the longer term.
Rita Pizzuto •
I feel for these illegal migrants, but am disappointed that nobody from the Maltese media has tried to investigate the truth in what these migrants are saying about Libya. We have heard so many tales of torture, shooting and what's not. If we were to believe what they are saying, then in Libya's detention centre, if there truly are any, they must go through hell. Then how is it that they get their women pregnant? We see a lot of women migrants pregnant and taken care of in Malta. If there is any truth in what they say about Libyans torturing them, do these torturers allow them to have enough sex during their detention to get their women pregnant. And if there are detention centers in Libya, who are looking after them. As far as I know, in Libya there's no army, not even an organized police force right now. I want to give these people a decent living if they are truly refugees. But if they just cross over to find the el dorado that the European countries such as England, France, Italy and Spain, to mention just a few, robbed them off, the European super powers should be the ones to give them a decent, humanitarian life. The burden for Mlata is much too heavy. The EU should do something to alleviate our burden, and quick.
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Hello Joseph,
I am smelling the coffee too, and I do not like what I smell. Please put your words into deeds or make way for others!
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While Simple Simon(2 gaffes in 2 weeks - Security committee and now immigration) and his merry band are out demonising the stand taklen by the PL Government, just go to the Daily Mail article about this subject and the readers' comments to see what degree of support Malta's stand has received. Simon should be ashamed that he has tried to gain political advantage on such an issue by shedding CROCODILE TEARS. PN supporters are warned - with this kind of leadership they are driving into a wall.
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"We considered all options and we took this decision, to consider all options, because we wanted Europe to wake and smell the coffee, and I believe we managed because finally this humanitarian and Mediterranean tragedy is back on the agenda."
Checkmate!
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Dan li qed jigri huwa xoghol tal-PN li qed iheggu lil min qed jibghat lil dawn il-klandestini li huma crieki fl- EU biex jiddistablizaw lil dan il-pajjiz u jinholoq l-inkwiet. Qatt ma rajna klandestini gejjin daqs dan l-ahhar xahar fejn iktar minn tlett klandestini waslu Malta kuljum.Isimghu l-odju u l-hdura li ghandhom lejn il-lejber u l-PM fuq in-NET u 101.Nazzjonalisti stess qed jittkazaw bijhom u jissaportjaw il-PM meta jcemplu.In-Nazzjonalisti dejjem kienu kontra Malta u servjenti tal-barrani.Immishom jisthu.
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Something urgent has to be done to curb this problem. Why doesn't the government build a detention centre on Comino for migrants and give them all basic necessities to live there decently? The EU said it would give Malta financial assistance.
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We wanted Europe to wake up and smell the coffee----
It appears that our glorious PM is completely unaware that Malta IS "Europe".
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What a buffon!
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Could one explain why Libyans who are currently residents in Malta are taking their children to Libya during the school summer holidays to visit and spend time with relatives? Surely if it is safe for their children it should be safe for all! If not where are the NGO’s, Lawyers, EU to defend and protect these children?
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Prosit lill Prim Ministru kellu l-vizjoni li jpoggi l-qattus qalb il-grieden, nahseb li l-oppozizzjoni ben taf li din kienet l-ahjar li seta jsir u kien aktar qabillom politikament li fil-parlament juzaw din il-mossa bhala mossa tajba. Ghal aktar informazzjoni fuq dan araw id-debate bejn il-Kummissarju Cecilia Malmström u l-ex British Home Secretary Charles Clarke.
http://www.euronews.com/2013/05/08/asylum-fixing-a-broken-system-full-debate/
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Fill Airmalta planes with the migrants and send them to Brussels, the EU will surely start acting more positively towards Malta's claims. You only know that a slap in the face hurts, when you get one. By the way if Malta is due to contribute to the problems of Greece , Cyprus Portugal and Spain stop such contributions and ask these countries to accept a thousand migrant for every million euros we lend them.
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Put them on a plane and send them to BRUSSELS., Let them deal with them, Unless you do something drastic they may listen but will do NOTHING, maybe its time for us to stand up and be counted instead of letting others rule our Island.
Joseph MELI •
I'm with you big-time JM on this one and what the rest of Europe need to do-the ones who reneged on the financial help deal promised in this regard -is to wake up and smell the influx of migrtants landing on our shores.If you or I tried to enter another country without documentation or if it was expired or without the necessary visa and cited political persecution or whatever we would be sent back from whence we came in a New York minute -so whats the difference here?
