12 Oct Will we ever learn?
Last Monday I met an Eritrean mother of three who despite living in despicable conditions is eternally grateful to Malta for giving her children the chance to grow up safely. In an attempt to get away from the dangers of her war-torn country, a couple of years ago, 26-year old Semihar, crossed over to Malta on a small rickety rackety boat hoping for a safer and better life.
This paper ran a video story about Semihar and also made an appeal for help. Many were generous and opened their hearts, but having held Semihar’s innocent baby in my arms, I sincerely hope that she never grows up to read the comments that some people left on the message board and on Facebook.
I’m totally convinced that people who comment so cruelly and negatively have never met anyone in Semihar’s situation, at least not in person. To me they are racists devoid of emotion, compassion, and empathy. Sadly, most justify their racism and hatred by saying that they are not particularly against Africans but against people who enter the country illegally.
Conveniently, they fail to understand that asylum seekers and refugees like Semihar, are not in Malta illegally. They enter the country irregularly (not illegally) because they have no other way of doing so, but then, once they are recognized as genuine asylum seekers (and most are) they have as much right to be in Malta as you and I. Once they are out of detention they are even given a I Maltese ID card, and are legally allowed to work, because, shock horror, it is their right!
I don’t even try to explain this to the likes of Robert Henry Bugeja – a Labour candidate who was vying for Karmenu Vella’s seat in Parliament and, who despite his social responsibility as a public figure, spewed racist venom on his Facebook wall. I don’t bother because once his parents failed to bring up a decent man, it is now his party’s job to explain such basics to him. But instead, the Labour Party merely made him remove his status from Facebook and still backed him as a candidate on the party ticket. But it’s all good, because it’s when a politician and a party are caught unawares like this, that they show their true colours, thus helping us voters make a more informed choice when the time comes.
Meanwhile , today the world celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and last week, the seven crosses that had been put up as a memorial dedicated to those who had died while trying to flee East Germany, went missing.
The group called “Center for Political Beauty” claimed responsibility for this. They purposely ‘stole’ the crosses and placed them near today’s border fences that are meant to keep Middle Eastern and African refugees from entering Europe.
And whilst the EU is considering stopping its rescue programs because they are way too expensive to run, according to German news site Spiegel Online, Germany will be spending at least $1.5 million to decorate the former course of the Berlin Wall with illuminated balloons.
One lost life is a loss too many, but given the numbers that we’re talking about, the huge loss of life, the overcrowded boats and the increasing desperation of human beings like us, one cannot but question if Europe has conveniently lost its memory.
Only last Monday 24 bodies which are believed to have been on a boat carrying migrants to Europe, were found near Istanbul’s Bosphorus strait. Last year we lost almost 400 people in one go and we saw EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in tears telling us that something will be done. We saw the coffins in Lampedusa, and we were urged to accept more refugees; and so we did and should; but since then EU policies have not changed one bit. Since then we had yet another big disaster where were we lost 200 refugees last August. And now, for the cherry on the cake, Italy has said that it will stop rescuing people because it is costing the country €9 million a month.
The only piece of good news, (which could easily backfire), came last week in the form of a European Court of Human Rights’ judgment which prevented the return of an asylum seeking family to Italy after they had somehow made it to Switzerland.
An Afghan family with young children, managed to travel to Switzerland from Italy and claimed asylum there. Of course Switzerland tried to return the family to Italy but the European Court of Human Rights decided that returning the family to Italy without guarantees of appropriate conditions, would violate their human rights.
This is a clear change in direction, a landmark ruling if you wish, which means that vulnerable asylum seekers cannot be automatically sent back to the country they are first registered without considerable guarantees.
But could this be an easy loophole to get round the Dublin Agreement? Will it serve to protect the vulnerable or will it further incentivize countries such as Italy, Greece and to a certain extent Malta, to be less accommodating?
Between 1961 and 1989, at least 136 people died trying to cross from East to West Berlin. This summer alone saw more than 3,000 migrants dying whilst trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. And yet, we candidly celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall, whilst hypocritically fortify new borders.
*this article was first published on The Malta Independent on Sunday.
