The most feminist government in Maltese history deports the men but ‘spares’ the women

Published: July 9, 2013 at 5:12pm

There were 102 people who arrived by boat this morning. Of those, 41 are women and two are babies. The women and babies have been locked up at Lyster Barracks detention camp and will be kept in Malta.

Locking up babies in a detention camp is already illegal and a human rights violation in itself.

The men have been separated out from the women and babies – their wives and children – and are locked up separately at the Police HQ in Floriana, until they are flown out to Libya on flights at midnight at 4am.

So this wonderful government is not only going to violate human rights by pushing back the men to Libya. It has also discriminated between men and women, sending the men away because it’s OK if men are tortured and killed, but keeping the women here.

It has separated husbands and wives, men from their babies, and split up families by carting the men away, in scenes we last saw in Bosnia in the early 1990s. I wouldn’t like to mention the scenes from a much earlier decade that are scored into our collective memory via a hundred films and documentaries.

Members of NGOs and charities have tried to gain access to the women at Lyster Barracks and to the men at the Police HQ, but have been denied contact with them.

A member of an NGO to whom I spoke just now tells me that they are heading there right now, because they want to attempt to prevent the men being moved out and onto the planes.

God, how I wish I had all those half-brained chatterers lined up in front of me right now so that I might demand an explanation of how they feel about their hero Joseph’s appalling behaviour and human rights violations.

Taghna lkoll! Taghna Lkoll! Joseph Joseph Joseph Joseph! Wow, he’s so LIBERAL. He legislates for transgender marriage and violates human rights.

He loves you if you’re gay, but if you’re black, watch out.

He puts a ‘Muslim consultant’ in his office, then panders to the anti-Muslim army of haters who want Africans deported “because they will take over with their religion”.

Ghastly, absolutely ghastly.




30 Comments Comment

  1. jojo says:

    He is a bully ,and the whole situation is ghastly..inhumanity at its best.

  2. Liberal says:

    What a bloody despicable heartless shit Joseph Muscat is.

  3. FP says:

    He’s a poser.

    He’s a fake.

    He’s inept.

    He’s incompetent.

    But above all else, his actions are despicable.

  4. ciccio says:

    Surely, those men should say that they are gay. And they should ask Cyrus Engerer to defend their rights.

  5. QahbuMalti says:

    Where is the Imam? And what about the President, George Abela? So much for hhis lame pronouncement after the Pope’s blast to the West. We are a bunch of spineless xenophobes.

  6. H. Prynne says:

    Joseph Muscat only loves you if you have a vote.

    If not you are disposable.

    And as for all those people who condone this type of behaviour, I am appalled that I have to call you my fellow citizens, for you are as despicable as our Prime Minister.

  7. FP says:

    Here comes Joseph and his star cabinet, aided and abetted by people like:

    Joe Fenech
    Today, 15:45
    Good! At last Muscat might start actiing like a true politician!
    (The Times).

    What a sad sad joke they all are – the PM, his star cabinet, and the 166533 voters.

  8. george grech says:

    http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/07/perhaps-he-was-busy-playing-with-his-collection-of-faberge-eggs/

    Such a devoted mother. Unlike the Somali mothers who will not find any objection at having their husbands separated from their children.

  9. George says:

    Look at the comment by Malcolm Seychell on FB below.

    Raphael VassalloMalta Humanist Association
    YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. Government is actively considering sending 102 Somali asylum seekers back to Libya, in what would effectively be a repeat of a policy enacted by Italy in 2010, and declared illegal by the European Court of Human rights in 2012.
    The initiative would also be a direct violation of Protocol 4, Article 4 of the convention of human rights – to which Malta is signatory, and which …
    See More
    57 minutes ago ·
    17 people like this.

    Gary Borg What do you think will happen if Joseph breaks the rule?
    55 minutes ago

    Malcolm Seychell 36000+ voted for this
    54 minutes ago · 1

  10. La Redoute says:

    You don’t need two planes to deport 80 men. What on earth were Joseph Muscat and Manwel Mallia planning? To take policemen away from their catering duties to escort the men to Libya and make sure they don’t come back?

  11. Leslie Darmanin says:

    Should continue sending out the rest of the 20,000+ living here.

  12. Louisa says:

    Muscat’s actions are akin to slapping your kids into next week because you’ve had a tiff with your partner … because they’re weaker … because he can (well, he seems to think so).

    Yep, the Burmarrad bully is really out of control … putting the lives of 102 fatigued individuals in danger, only to teach the EU a “lesson”. I can even picture him taking a moment away from the cameras to stamp his feet, buttocks clenched and red in the face with rage.

    Malta’s Prime Minister is not even remotely capable of taking a hint (at least) from Pope Francis. And to think that the former was gleefully posing for the press with the Pontiff only a few weeks back. Sigh!

    I wonder, perhaps there might be someone within his fold, daringly murmuring, “shame on you, Joseph, shame on you”? … not the case, it seems.

  13. jack says:

    “He loves you if you’re gay, but if you’re black, watch out.”

    What if you are black AND gay?

  14. Natalie says:

    Joseph’s action amounts to execution of these men, probably physically, but most assuredly psychologically.

    Can’t he imagine himself in these men’s position? Separated forever from his wife and children? And what about the wives and children, how do they feel?

    I’m feeling Hitler’s vibes in the Labour Party today.

  15. Basla says:

    Before the election he went for their votes, now they are sending their brothers out to Libya this morning.

  16. herbie says:

    Unfortunately the majority of Maltese Christians who have us believe that our ancestors welcomed St Paul with open arms are all one with Joseph on this score.

  17. Ghoxrin Punt says:

    And where us the church in this. Still silent?

  18. A desperate effort to curry favour after many gaffes. And this might well turn out to be another gaffe.

    Let us see how it will develop.

    My comment should not be taken as an approval of the EU policy towards Malta in this respect.

  19. Pandora says:

    Can’t the Party of European Socialists put some pressure on Muscat? His actions are more far right than left.

    If he goes through with sending these men back, the international media will definitely be reporting this – another feather in our cap along with Dalligate… but this will too late for these poor souls.

  20. TinnAt says:

    By separating the men from the women, they’re actually denying them the human right to be with their families.

  21. Riya says:

    Back to Mintoff time.

    Malta will be daily in the limelight for taking wrong and cruel actions which seriously embarrass people and countries of good faith.

  22. Jo says:

    I was really shocked at some of the comments on 101 this evening. Xenophobic to the extreme.

    • Snoopy says:

      Yes, unfortunately I have been having serious arguments with most of my workplace colleagues. They cannot realise that in agreeing with JM, they are actually being racists and xenophobic. They just think that Malta cannot afford them! What about Spain, Italy, France and Cyprus, where the unemployment level is sky high?

      I really feel sad, disappointed and seriously thinking of leaving this country and forget that I was ever Maltese!

  23. Tracy says:

    Am I correct in saying that JM is on good terms with Libya ? If so why doesn’t he go and have talks with them to settle the immigration problem he is now facing ?

  24. Natalie Mallett says:

    Mein Kampf is Joseph Muscat’s bible. I have said this before and now I am being proven right. Shame on those opportunists who voted this dangerous, far-right winged racist into power. Proud not to have been one of them.

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