23 academics release declaration of support for human rights NGOs and against push-back of migrants
Twenty-three academics/university lecturers have released a statement of support of human rights campaigners. The statement strongly opposes the push-back of migrants.
The prime minister threatened human rights campaigners two days ago in parliament, saying that they would have to “shoulder the responsibility and the consequences” for obtaining an interim injunction from the European Court of Human Rights, stopping his plans to return Somali asylum-seekers to Libya on planes that were standing by.
The statement says:
“As academics we try to impart to the future professionals of this country a minimum of basic dignity and respect, both towards others and towards self. We could not stand by and watch whilst our country sent Somali migrants who braved possible death in a hazardous journey, to seek safety, to seek a life, back to Libya. We therefore support the NGOs who campaigned for these migrants not to be sent back.”
Those who put their names to it are: Marceline Naudi, Anna Borg, Claudia Psaila, Ruth Baldacchinio, Robert Micallef, Edward Warrington, Isabelle Calleja Ragonesi, Sandra Vella, Dione Mifsud, Paul Clough, Brenda Murphy, Prof. Angela Abela, Mary-Ann Borg Cunen, Prof. Ronald Sultana, Prof. Peter Mayo, Prof. Carmel Vassallo, Josann Cutajar, Maria Psiani, Anna Khakee, Carmen Sammut, Adrian Grima, Nathalie Kenely and Joanne Cassar.
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Why haven’t we heard anything from the Commissioner for Children?
Mela why they don’t open the door of their house for them, forsi irabbu xi erbgha minnhom la jithasruhom daqshekk. Wake up and smell the coffee. Push-back not pushovers. Maltese culture, art twielidna, blah blah blah….
Now that’s really in the nation’s interest, well done everyone. Especially those academics who believe in Socialism. Although was let down by Mary Darmanin (deep down she’s a human rights activist) and Dominic Fenech.
Malta is not dominated by a horde of brainless racists.
To be fair to them, this declaration was not passed to all academics and thus these two, like others, especially in science, engineering and medical sector, might not have known about it.
Is Andrew Azzopardi afraid to defy his beloved Joseph? Shouldn’t he be on the list of academics as well?
What about Edward Mallia, who refused to oppose the new power station during the election campaign?
Edward Mallia is retired but I’m sure he would have signed had he been asked.
Andrew Azzopardi is a different matter. Usually he has an opinion on everything and is not afraid to use it, so much so that he has earned that peculiar title of ‘opinionista’ (like being a professional pontificator). On this issue however he has carefully avoided saying anything. Not the slightest word – more neutral than Switzerland.
On his two Facebook profiles he keeps posting pieces and articles that others have written – in favour of pushbacks or against – but not a single word about what HE thinks.
I pointed this out in a comment and was promptly banned from one of the pages. On the other page one of my two comments was removed.
Edward Mallia was fired from the University of Malta at least three years ago. Get your facts right. Besides which, it smacks of witch-hunting to shove the declaration before everyone who has ever worked at the University of Malta, including scientists, who are expected to avoid politics like the plague.
As for Andrew Azzopardi, would you expect honour from that despicable character?
I’ve always thought that the vainglorious was more Andrew’s cause.
I am glad to see certain other names on that list, and late though it is, it would be good to see a more complete one.
Why Maltese University staff are so uncontactable, even to students, boils down to inefficiency of general attitude really.
Well done — big applause for you all!
Muscat is relying heavily on the good-will of the Nationalist opposotion, but I feel that Simon Busuttil should tell Muscat that patience has a limit.
It’s not a question of patience. The PN could help but only on condition that Muscat formally promises that he will never again attempt to push back, repatriate or deny immigrants their human rights.
That is a line that cannot be crossed, ever, and Simon Busuttil should be very clear and emphatic about it.
Is Carmen Sammut of the Labour think tank?
Yes, it’s her.
Like the 69 lawyers these too are taking a stand. These are really and truly standing up to be counted. Now how about the President’s office and the Bishops come out with a clear and unequivocal stand on the matter?
Tweedledum and Tweedledee. That is what standing up to be counted means, you silly twats.
Is Lara Boffa going to add them to her blacklist?
Well done to all. Now can somebody please tell Joseph Muscat that this, together with the 69 lawyers’ judicial protest, is what standing up to be counted really is? The poor man equates it to pomposity.
And what about the rest? Only four professors? Where are the other 30?
[Daphne – Same as with the lawyers, they would have rung everyone they could within the limited time available. The others are free to release their own statement – nothing to stop them.]
Now THAT is standing up to be counted.
Daphne:Is this thing about illegal imigrants a diversion from John Dalli saga? It seems the lion (John) sleeps tonight.
Coconut shy?
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/courtandpolice/Court-fines-Police-Commissioner-prime-minister-s-spokesperson-20130711
For those who have no clue about anything.
This is exactly what ‘standing up to be counted’ means in English.
Puerile and shameful attempts at making other people ‘smell the coffee’ have no relation whatsoever with this idiomatic expression.
Daphne, so what li ghamlu dikjarazzjoni dawn it-talin. B’liema autorita’ jitkellmu dawn u jippruvaw jostakkolaw lill-Gvern. Imissu johorgu ghonqom huma ghall-emigranti u johduhom id-dar taghhom. Din hi arroganza klassista ta’ dawn in-nies.
Mela min, skont int, għandhu d-dritt jikkritika l-Gvern? Mhux dik id-demokrazzija, sistema fejn il-Gvern ma jistax jagħmel li jrid bin-nies meta jabeż ċerti limiti?
Democracy in action – “jostakkolaw lill-Gvern” , so according to you we have no right to show our dissent?
Where is Dr Andrew Azzopardi when you need him?
“Ikkampanjajna bhala Muviment, u ser niggvernaw bhala Muviment.”
“We campaigned as a movement, and we will govern as a movement.”
– Joseph Muscat.
And where do the students themselves stand on the issue of push backs? When are they going to smell the coffee and stand to be counted?
As an educator myself I would like to congratulate the brave academics who dared sign the declaration. Is it possible that all the other academics don’t agree?
Or maybe they are afraid to stick their neck out. Can’t really judge them since everyone who has lived under Labour knows how they like to hold a grudge.
I have been very vocal about this issue on facebook but my mother, who has received several political transfers already (I’m not joking), is worried that I won’t get the job I applied for with the government. And she’s probably right.
These academics are of different political sympathies. That’s good.
But I expected a much larger number who would put their name.
Is this Lara Boffa’s white list now?
The list could have been much longer. The logistics of circulation were somewhat complicated given the time of year.
Carmen Sammut? Is she starting to see the light?
Muscat is Douglas Adam’s non-negative number.
One which is anything other than itself.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Libya-deputy-PM-in-Malta-for-migration-talks-with-Van-Rompuy-20130711
‘But Muscat insisted that his government had not employed a pushback and that his decision was simply to “not exclude any options” in dealing with escalating numbers of irregular migrants at sea….’
See? We jumped to conclusions.
Then there’s this other gem,
‘These racists are a minority, and the government does not condone this kind of language,” Muscat said.
Thank goodness for that and it’s a given the Maltese government wouldn’t, if you pretty please.
Let’s have you condemning yesterday’s bile, unless of course, Labour’s violence in the 80’s was something which should have never happened.
I’d love to think Muscat’s a bit slow.
I hope the press hounds Joseph Muscat into explaining what he means by “shoulder responsibility and the consequences”.
Many Maltese do not let trivial considerations such as morality and human rights get in the way of expressing the basest racist sentiments.
They’re busy claiming that the Maltese are not racists and declaim how generous and hospitable we are (minn zmien San Pawl and all that poppycock), but they certainly react to the arrival of a few hundred poor souls like abominable troglodytes.
They also whinge interminably about the other EU Members not showing solidarity with us by taking more of our ‘wave’ of immigrants (presumably they refer to the Africans, not the lissom Eastern European ladies). Little do they consider that:
1. many of the other Member States have sizeable, if not more acute, illegal immigration problems of their own, and
2. were we not EU Members, we’d really be fending with the immigration problem on our own, without the benefit of substantial EU funds or voluntary solidarity mechanism.
The most pathetic argument is that the influx of immigrants (again from Africa) is eroding our Maltese identity. If our identity is so fragile and transient that it risks disappearing merely as a result of the influx of a few hundred immigrants, there’s not much to save in the first place, is there?
Ghamlu sewwa l-akkademici li hargu dikjarazzjoni favur l-NGOs. Il-problema hi, li kienu waqghu fil-muta meta kellna gvern imexxi dan il-pajjiz minghajr maggoranza parlamentari..
Another group of BRAVE people who know that ethical principles and legal obligations should be placed at the top of one’s decisions.
The more we see of this kind of people WHO REALLY DO STAND UP TO BE COUNTED, the more we become convinced that Joseph Muscat’s comic decision to push-back Somalians to Libya was just a big mess which deserves everyone’s outright condemnation.
The papers are reporting that our prime minister organized a meeting (non-announced) between the Libyan Deputy PM and the EU Comissioner. Was this done with the consent of the latter or was the EU commissioner trapped and forced into it?
This meeting reminded me of the last time somthing similar happend (an insult to diplomacy) was in 1986 when KMB and Alex Sceberras Trigona ‘forced/trapped’ the Italian Foreign Minister at the time (the late Spadolini) into meeting a Libyan Minister or Gaddafi himself.
Spadolini was unaware of the trap at the time and was led into a room where Gaddafi or a Libyan minister was waiting.
This happend after NATO attacked Gaddafi’s palaces in Tripoli in 1986. Spadolini was subjected to a lot of harassment and insults during that brief meeting, and the MLP ministers were aware of what was going to happen.
Malta was such a pariah and such a servant of Gaddafi at the time, that played Gaddafi’s dirty games.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-07-11/news/libyan-deputy-prime-minister-makes-unscheduled-visit-to-castille-2049114116/
In this comment I was referring to the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and not EU Commissioner.
The unfortunate thing is that not all of us academics received this.
[Daphne – You could organise another one…]
Dawn ser ikunu blacklisted ukoll minn Lara Boffa ta’ Enemalta u l-gvern/partit tal-Labour?
Nifirhilhom ghax ma jibzawx juru isimhom. Prosit.
Another black list anyone ?
This is unbelievable. I read this in MaltaToday:
“Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has refuted suggestions that plans to forcibly deport 45 Somali asylum seekers to Libya on Tuesday, were “pushbacks”.”
And…
“But Muscat insisted that his government had not employed a pushback and that his decision was simply to “not exclude any options” in dealing with escalating numbers of irregular migrants at sea.
“The majority of the country, and I, are concerned about the situation and this should not be mistaken for racism,” Muscat said to questions that the botched pushback – stopped by the European Court of Human Rights at the eleventh hour – had sparked a general anxiety over immigration with the general public and on the social media.
“These racists are a minority, and the government does not condone this kind of language,” Muscat said.”
So Joseph Muscat:
(1) Considers push-back as one of all the options considered.
(2) Does not reject that he will conduct push-backs when specifically and persistently asked by a journalist of the Times.
(3) His government gives instructions to Airmalta pilots to prepare for overnight trips to Mitiga airport with immigrants.
(4) Goes to Parliament and explains that healthy males will be returned (pushed back) to Libya.
(5) As a consequence of the above, encourages an outburst of racist sentiment by thousands of people as expressed on the social media – many of whom filled the Times of Malta’s blogs – which he did not seek to control through a public announcement (there was no ‘xandira lin-nazzjon’ about this).
And now he is blaming them and calling them “racists.”
Utterly despicable, and unbelievably irresponsible.
Done some more research about this.
So Muscat told a Swedish journalist that the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs did not understand his British humour. But it seems that nobody is understanding whatever Muscat says any more.
In other replies to the media – Muscat, who did not have a teleprompter – tried to deny that his government was working on pushbacks.
Which must mean that the Editor of The Times misunderstood Muscat’s intentions in the leader of 10 July 2013, entitled “Illegal, dangerous and disgraceful,” where the Editor said:
“Governments have a duty to consider each claim to asylum on its merits, not automatically push them back. This is a legal as well as moral obligation. The Maltese government was not willing to do this yesterday.
It is clear that Dr Muscat is adopting such reprehensible tactics because a vocal majority is behind him. They, and the rest of us, will live to regret it.”
Even Saviour Balzan misunderstood Joseph Muscat’s intentions in his blog dated 9 July 2013, where he says among other things:
“This is a shameful act and perhaps a new page to Muscat’s style of politics. It continues to shed light on the Labour party’s position on migration, and the decision by the Prime Minister to jump on the national bandwagon of xenophobia.”
Both editors should perhaps issue an apology to Muscat about their misunderstandings. But I do not think so.
Thank goodness that the ECHR misunderstood him too. Its order to stop any pushbacks stopped the government’s plan to send around 50 ‘healthy men’ back to Libya where the respect for the human rights of immigrants is, how shall I put it, at the same level as that of Joseph Muscat and his government.
And even hundreds of comments on the Times of Malta blogs confirm that Muscat was widely misunderstood by the xenophobes. They were pouring praise on Muscat for protecting the “national interest” with his stand to send immigrants back.
I do not blame the journalists if they do not understand Muscat any more. I think even his supporters, including both the switchers on one side and the xenophobes on the other, do not understand his political direction any more. It’s one direction one day, and the opposite direction the next.
It is disturbing that some interpret Joseph Muscat’s latest despicable antics as ‘flexing muscle’.
His type of behaviour is at the very least most cowardly and extremely bullish.
I may be wrong but to me this highlights a low self esteem and an innate fear of a fair battle.
Scary when you realise it’s our prime minister. What is more worrying though is that there are quite a few that interpret this heinous act – one on the same level as kidnapping children for extortion – as one that is heroic, gutsy and righteous.
The obvious disregard of these people’s rights is terrible and exposes Muscat for the isolationist conservative he is, something we have been saying for the past five years but were ignored. Well, that’s water under the bridge now.
Luckily many liberals have ditched the band wagon.
However, some have not, using words like “national interest” in their argument to insinuate that following the law is tantamount to treachery. Which is what makes all of this so much worse.
What we are seeing today is exactly what our parents experienced only 25-30 years ago under Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
Thank God for the EU, otherwise all the people protesting against Muscat’s acts would be in big trouble as they would have signed their livelihoods and maybe even their lives away if he is adamant on imitating Mintoff to the extreme.
Labour do not look at complaints; they look at the names assigned to those complaints and then dish out their vengeance accordingly.
The “Is this a blacklist” mentality manifested by Lara Boffa, Enemalta director, on Facebook is what Mintoff cultivated because in his filthy and corrupt mind those complaints did not come attached with the voices of people in pain or worry. They were just words on a paper.
In fact, I am convinced that Mintoff, and indeed even the PL today, can’t understand why someone complains, or petitions the government, because to them it’s tantamount to turning yourself in.
We must all stand together and make sure Muscat is held to account. Any snarky remarks of “well you can foot the bill then” must be met with disapproval.
If not, Malta and all the Maltese will have to watch as innocent men women and children are sent to their death. If we can do something, anything, to stop that we owe it to ourselves and to our country to do so.
Your last para but one is very important.
I would like to tell Ms. Boffa about the evening when (I suppose it might be her grandmother) addressed a PN meeting at Qormi before the 87 election.
Do not vote for Mintoff was the message she gave us.
Did you know this?
Yes, but look who she’s gone and voted for.
I have been waiting for some of those in the arts/cultural world whose hearts allegedly regularly bleed to make their revulsion public.
I have in mind, in particular, a regular opinion writer in Times of Malta from whom, so far, there has been a deafening silence.
Perhaps he doesn’t want to put his iced bun or the promised reduction in electricity tariffs at risk. Lino Spiteri too, judging by recent articles, must also be agonising on how to portray Joseph’s actions as a minor mistake which palls into insignificance compared to the duplicity and trouble-making of the PN.
The only thing they are going to say is that the PN did the same thing, and criticize anyone for getting at Muscat and making it all about partisan politics. That way they get out of offending Muscat.
http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=NGO+o%26%23295%3Bra+tirri%26%23380%3Benja+mill%2DKunsill+Konsultattiv+li+waqqaf+il%2DGvern+dwar+l%2DLGBT&t=a&aid=99848873&cid=19
So the majority of the 69 lawyers who signed the judicial protest were men and the majority of these signatories are women.
Now we’ll see what One News will say about Angela Abela, Carmen Sammut, and Ronald Sultana.
They simply did not report it Gahan. They only bothered trying to discredit the judicial protest.
One thing’s for sure, if they even think of putting in bad light Angela Abela nee Grech she will teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.
She was always a determined girl and she won’t take any BS from these buffoons.
She wasn’t born with a silver spoon in the mouth; on the contrary, Angela and her five brothers worked hard from a tender age. She can feel what these refugees are going through.
I really admire the woman from Hal Luqa.
.. With due respect, we have to draw a line and tackle this problem as humane as possible. We are, after all a little rock, with limited resources and an overpopulated area per square kilometer!
[Daphne – Worried about population size, are you? I’m surprised you don’t suggest doing the Chinese thing and making it illegal to have more than one child. We’re hardly the black hole of Calcutta. Relax. I don’t see anyone running out of jobs or places to live – rather the opposite, as it happens. And our birth rate is one of the lowest in Europe. We actually need immigrants because we’re not replacing ourselves. They’ll be the ones paying your pension, Charles, because the only Maltese interested in having children are those who don’t work, and who are quite likely to have children with the same attitude.]
Such a good point, Daphne.
However, with these people, short sighted that they are, if I may use an old naval term, it’s never helpful to piss into the wind.
Van Rompuy: ‘Your concerns are being heard’…….. seems to me that they did wake up and smell the coffee!
[Daphne – That’s the language of diplomacy. Learn how to read it.]
Van Rompuy did wake up and made it to Malta on time.
Whether he was smelling the coffee or not is anybody’s guess.
Nobody bothered to ask him.
The ignorance of certain people really baffles me.
What did you expect Van Rompuy to say Brian? Behave in the atrocious way your Joseph does?
Where are the members of the Faculty of Theology?
I think the academics who signed the declaration simply passed it on to others they knew personally. They are all from the Faculty of Arts. Pity that it was not a University-wide initiative.
Right
It is actually amazing what is happening here. I can’t remember the last time that academics actually stuck their neck out and voiced an opinion. This is what a true movement is. Mela that superficial one – Malta Taghna Ilkoll.
I recall the last time they did something similar: “Jiena nemmen li Pietru Pawl Busuttil huwa innocenti”..maybe that was in 1986.
So we are back to the 80s.
How sad to have lost the peaceful life we had got used to in the past 25 years circa.
Not yet, Victor. No one fears (let alone respects) little Joey, Including his ‘followers’.
Muscat’s way of apologising to one nation is to insult them by implying that they are stupid because they don’t understand that his ‘quip’ was a result of his ‘British sense of humour’.
Amazing with one fell swoop he also managed to insult all the British. He fails to understand that sarcasm is considered to be the lowest form of wit by all educated British. Miskin don’t think he’s going to have much joy trying to chat up Cameron the next time he sees him….
Din il-mizura il-Gvern ghamilha l-aktar biex jikkuntenta lill-membri tal-Forzi Armati ghax dawn iridu xoghol biex joqoghodu jippuzaw Kastillja, jippuzaw fil-bieb tal -ufficju tal-Ministru Mallia u joqoghdu jdoqqu fil-banda, ghax hekk biss kapaci jaghmlu.
Jekk il-poplu jahseb li saret habba l-finanzi ghandu zball kbir ghax l-ispejjez tal-emigranti huma kola mhallsin mill-Ewropa.
Can anyone keen on statistical figures confirm or otherwise whether there has been any government in Malta and outside it that has done such a fiasco and almost lost its popularity in its first 100 days?
Francois Hollande.
Canada. Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper, 1896, 68 days.
Am I right to say that today I did not hear Joseph Muscat utter any of the following phrases or words: “national interest,” “pushback,” “we are considering all opotions” and “veto”?
Did he chicken out of his threats, or has he realised that he has embarrassed himself and the country with condemnation from all quarters, but especially from the ECHR?
This is definitely one major U-turn on Joseph’s roadmap, which is frought with ‘U-turns’, ‘wrong way’ and ‘slippery road ahead’ signs.
I am also noticing that he is using one language here in Malta to incite the “marmalja”, and then using another language with the foreigners to look nice.
…fraught not frought…
An interesting perspective although not directly relevant.
http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2010/10/true-size-of-africa.jpg
Was this reported in the independent press?