Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1183920
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 MAY 2018 9 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 13 NOVEMBER 2019 9 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday MaltaToday, MediaToday Co. Ltd, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: MATTHEW VELLA DEPUTY EDITOR: PAUL COCKS Tel: (356) 21 382741-3, 21 382745-6 • Fax: (356) 21 385075 Website: www.maltatoday.com.mt E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt ACCORDING to recent media reports, Malta entered into an alleged 'secret deal' with Libya on migration, in order to return fleeing asylum seekers to a country with an execrable track record of hu- man rights violations, in particular where migrants are concerned. News reports about this deal strike a disquieting tone: "We reached what you could call an understanding with the Libyans," an unnamed government source told the press, "When there is a vessel heading towards our waters, the AFM coordinates with the Libyans who pick them up and take them back to Libya before they come into our waters and be- come our responsibility," the source said. The government source went on to say that had the agreement not been reached, the island would have been "drowning in migrants". However, there was no men- tion of migrants drowning in the Medi- terranean, as a direct result of Europe's failed migration policies. If Malta has really carried out such a secret deal, it would be tantamount to a form of delegated refoulement of asylum seekers and refugees to the same country from where they are escaping. This raises the highly contentious issue as to whether such an action is indeed illegal, as sending back asylum seekers to the place they are running from is illegal in terms of international law. There was, however, little surprise at the actions of an EU country attempting to use the Libyan government and its mi- litias as gatekeepers to the migratory flow. The EU already funds the Libyan coast- guard and finances this effort alone, while Italy itself has been funding an anti-mi- grant deal: under which the Libyan coast- guard stops sends 'rescued' passengers back to the north African country, where they may face torture and abuse. Well before that, Silvio Berlusconi's government funded Gaddafi in a bid to take back migrants rescued by Italian coastguards, in what was a clear breach of international law, also ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights. With the EU abdicating its role to pa- trol the Mediterranean beyond its imme- diate borders after Operations Mare Nos- trum and Sofia, its own member states have attempted to make it harder for migrant charities and rescue NGOs from carrying out the rescue of asylum seek- ers in international wars: either through standoffs just outside territorial waters; or else, as seen recently in a video published by Sea-Eye, by allowing Libyan militias with gunboats to interfere with a rescue. All this must be seen in the context of Libya's worsening security issues. It had been eight years since the NA- TO-led military intervention in Libya, but the country today stands further from peace than ever. Since April 2019, battles between the UN-sponsored Government of National Accord (GNA) and General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army have raged in Tripoli. By the end of July, an estimated 1,100 people had been killed and a further 104,000 displaced. In early July, an airstrike on Tajoura migrant detention centre near the Libyan capital Tripoli reportedly killed more than 50 civilians and injured 130. Am- nesty International's warnings were ignored and 610 migrants were trapped in Tajoura when a bomb struck. Post- intervention Libya has faced political and economic collapse, with 7,578 violent deaths recorded between 2012 and 2018. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and weapons have spread across the region. This is the place where these people are escaping from. There is, however, the local political context to take into account also. By the same publication of alleged 'migrant deals', the Labour government stands to gain by surreptitiously showing off its muscle with voters: who, as recent Malta- Today surveys show, have viewed migra- tion with alarming concern since a riot that happened inside an open reception centre in Hal Far. As prime minister, Muscat can only put forward the face of a statesman, eager to advance the perception that Malta cannot cope with a migrant influx to win impor- tant concessions of solidarity and respon- sibility-sharing from other EU countries. To be fair, Muscat has used his cha- risma and influence in situations where racist violence and hate had to be tackled head-on. His public pronouncements – in the wake of the Hal Far riots, but also in light of Lassana Cisse Souleymane's murder in April – were rightly measured in the face of growing racism and xeno- phobia. Today, the PM should be putting that influence to good use in the wake of the MaltaToday survey. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the Labour government would be pleased to have its silence on the alleged Libyan migrant deal play on, for it gives its own supporters the impression that it is car- rying out a game of subterfuge to stop migrants from leaving Libya. Of course, such games are puerile at- tempts at manipulating public opinion when a responsible government is duty- bound to fully communicate its interna- tional obligations on human rights. But whatever mistakes were made in the past – and whatever the popular mood regarding immigration - Malta needs reassurance that it is not contra- vening international law, and committing human rights violations, through 'secret deals' with other countries that may en- danger human life and dignity. After all, there can be no backroom deals when it comes to human rights. Mikiel Galea No 'secret deals' over human rights