Those who voted Labour voted for illegal push-backs and the violation of human rights. So much for being liberal. Maybe they didn’t notice?
Joseph Muscat said clearly in the electoral campaign that he favours the push-back of immigrants, an illegal policy which violates human rights, “as long as Libya is prepared to take them back”.
This is what those who voted Labour voted for, even as they call themselves liberal. A conscious vote for somebody who planned to violate human rights. Or maybe they didn’t notice, and missed the bit where he said it.
Well, here it is. Go to 5′ in the video linked below, which I can’t embed here.
Herman Grech of The Sunday Times asks both party leaders for a categoric Yes or No answer as to whether they are prepared to use push-back on immigrants. Joseph Muscat says Yes, his only concern being that Libya (an undemocratic country where the violation of human rights is normal) agrees. Lawrence Gonzi says, firmly, ‘No.’
And if you’re prepared to listen to the whole thing, you will notice that Muscat says (with the hesitant body language that indicates lying) that he will not extend the boundaries for development. But he’s elected and it’s about the first thing he does, with land reclamation.
He also says he will not have a referendum on hunting. Lawrence Gonzi says he is happy to have one.
I am sure you will notice other things with the benefit of hindsight. I didn’t have the patience. A few minutes of that and I felt I was watching a compulsive cheat lying convincingly to his wife (“Look, if you just sign this document here…and there…”).
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130226/elections-news/livestream.459175
I didn’t need hindsight to realise he was lying through his teeth during that debate. It was quite apparent at the time. He actually said so there and then for Pete’s sake!
Dr. Gonzi wiped the floor with him that time. Unfortunately it was for nought.
Will someone please point this out to Raphael Vassallo.
His comments on Facebook are making me sick. He is so tunnel visioned in his hatred for everything that is PN and particularly Gonzi and Tonio Borg that he has been harping on and on about the 2002 repatriation.
Even if that was wrong it doesn’t make what Muscat did here right.
[Daphne – They are two entirely different scenarios. In 2002, that wasn’t a push-back. The Eritreans had been here for a long time, going through the entire asylum process, and were only repatriated when their application was turned down. That in no way compares to a push-back of individuals who are denied their right to apply for asylum and receive help doing it.]
Moreover Muscat had the benefit of hindsight but still chose to threaten to use this defenceless individuals to get the EU’s attention. And no I don’t believe for a minute that he never intended to fly them out as his supporters would have us believe. I think he underestimated the NGOs.
Raphael is from good stock and is supposed to be intelligent himself. However he seems to have really comes across as bitter and twisted. He fails to be objective and every time Muscat or one of his cronies screw up, which they do at an incredibly fast rate, he always somehow throws it back at the Nationalists.
When is he going to realise that the Nationalists are not governing the country anymore. Quite frankly they are no longer truly relevant.
He should be scrutinising the actions of the government (whichever party is in government) as those are the ones that effect us.
His lack of objectivity is making him fail as a journalist. Not that a journalist cannot have his own personal allegiances but to let his prejudices take over to the extent that they have in Raphael’s case is another thing altogether. What a shame.
Perhaps he is behaving this way as he is reeling from having voted in such monsters so he is “in blood stepped so deep that that should [he] wade no more Returning would be as tedious as going o’er”.
Actually even Lino Spiteri in the Sunday Times mentions the Eritrean repatriation, always leaving out that their asylum application had failed. And has anyone noticed the numbers that have come previously, almost double by July, without the then Nationalist government resorting to a push-back policy, and we survived to this day?
Yes I agree the two scenarios aren’t the same.
Whether a prime minister says it or not, we will judge him, not only by what he says but mostly by what he actually does.
After actually garnering support for his push-back policy, Joseph is trying hard to pay lip service to the people who are mostly in need.
This is tomorrow’s gospel (Luke):
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2359373/Malta-forced-cancel-flights-repatriating-400-Somalian-Eritrean-migrants-human-rights-court-order.html
Did Joseph Muscat sleep well after seeing the somali baby sleeping on a towel on that horribly dirty floor at police headquarters?
If some policemen are able to act as waiters there must be some who are able to clean the floor and provide some form of bedding to those poor women.
The only preoccupation Muscat has is to know who took those pictures so that disciplinary action is taken.
Daphne, I did not vote Labour but I am for a push-back policy outright. Now that the European Court of Human Rights has issued an interim injunction, the EU is duty bound to come up with a viable solution.
It is only now that Simon Busuttil has changed his tune and taking a political advantage of the situation feeling all compassionate and asking his stooges to sing along.
And all this while he was in perfect agreement with Berlusconi when he had reached an agreement with Gaddafi to send illegal migrants back.
The convenient labeling of people as racists and xenophobes will not deter the masses from crying out loud and wasting nine whole years listening to our MEP’s whining about burden sharing and Frontex only made people more frustrated.
People are not born racists, people become racist when they stand to witness a silent invasion of their country and are helpless to act especially with such an influx of Islamic people from sub Saharan Africa.
Islam is a religion of destruction with staunch anti western sentiments and this should be contained and preferably sent back to the desert where it belongs and where it can do no harm.
The problem with Europe is that is it governed by weak politicians and people are crying out for change: The only solution in situations like this, were people want firm leadership is the hard right as is being witnessed in France and Denmark.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090917/local/busuttil-defends-italian-return-policy.273637#.Ud2Wdr1DWdo.facebook