Former KNPD chair says he was ‘always against’ disability hub

The former chairman of the National Commission for Persons with Disability (KNPD) has criticised the commission for welcoming a proposed €12 million “disability hub” to be developed at San Pawl tat-Targa in Naxxar.

Joseph Camilleri recently criticised the project announced in the last Budget, insisting it would introduce “segregation by stealth” instead of promoting inclusivity for persons with a disability.

The government has however insisted that this was not the case, and that the hub would be open to different clients, not just persons with disability.

Although official details are yet to be released, the KNPD said the hub would bring together different services spread over the island in one centralized location. 

Parliamentary secretary for the rights of the disabled, Justyne Caruana, said that the complex would include purpose-built residential units with shared beds, a day centre, a multi-purpose hall, a purpose-built therapeutic facility and sports facilities. Restaurants, shops and hostels will be managed by persons with disability.

On his part, KNPD chairman Oliver Scicluna said the hub would allow people with disability and their families to access services with less inconvenience.

But Joseph Camilleri sees the hub differently.

“It is indeed a sad and tragic day when the KNPD, which is supposed to be an autonomous national human rights institution and a champion of Maltese disabled people’s rights, expresses itself in favour of a project which totally contradicts the spirit and word of both the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and our own Equal Opportunities (Persons with Disability) Act,” Camilleri said in a letter to MaltaToday.

He has insisted that the proposal would turn out to be “large-scale segregated ghettoes where disabled people can be warehoused in large numbers”.

The same proposal had been made shortly after the 2013 general election: “Luckily, for various reasons, the scheme was a non-starter. However, it seems that the individual behind it is still trying to ‘rebrand’ it as something new and has managed to have it included in the 2016 Budget.”

Camilleri reacted once again after the parliamentary secretary told parliament how the former KNPD chair was part of the same committee that proposed the hub. The site was chosen by the government.

But Camilleri said that he was always against the hub.

“I was part of discussions held in early 2014 and prior to my retirement from public life in March of the same year. At the time an almost identical proposal was put forwarded by Philip Rizzo – then advisor to the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity,” Camilleri said.

The meeting was convened by the then parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca and was attended by Camilleri and the permanent secretary. “At the time, as Chairman of KNPD, I had expressed my outright and complete opposition to any large-scale project that proposed concentrating disabled persons and activities for disabled persons in one place,” he said.

“If nothing else this approach flies in the face of all the recommendations made in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD). My stand remains unchanged.”