Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1213458
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2020 NEWS PHOTO JAMES BIANCHI NEVILLE Gafà resigned his government job last month, shortly after Robert Abela was sworn in as Prime Min- ister. A Labour Party activist, Gafà had been employed as a person of trust with the Office of the Prime Minister by Joseph Muscat. Otherwise unknown, Gafà courted controversy when he was implicated in a medical visas racket involving Libyan patients four years ago, and subsequently for having visited Libya in a secret mission as the Maltese government's special envoy. Gafà finally spoke about his job within government last week when he testified in the public inquiry delving into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Under oath, Gafà confirmed that he had been acting as the Maltese government's go-between in dealings with the Libyan authorities on migration issues. He reiterates that line when I meet him for a coffee in Paceville, a day after he testified in the inquiry. Gafà confirms that in July 2018 he was asked by the Office of the Prime Minister whether he could help on the migration issue. "At the time, the attacks on Tripoli intensified and militias retreated from the coastal areas to move to the frontlines of war and this prompted an increase in mi- grant departures, particularly from the port cities of Zawijah and Khoms," Gafà tells me. The situation was exacerbated by the election in Italy of the hard-liner Matteo Salvini, who adopted a closed ports policy that saw Malta and Italy at loggerheads over which country should be taking in rescued migrants. Direct contacts with Libyan coastguard Gafà says the OPM asked him to use his contacts in Libya to establish a direct line with the authorities there, particularly the Libyan coastguard. He lifts the lid on what has, until now, been an uncon- firmed report of a secret arrangement between Malta and Libya to have migrants intercepted inside Libyan waters. "I used to receive information of boats departing from Libya and their coordinates from the Armed Forces of Malta and would relay this directly to the Libyan coast- guard. My work was to cover Libyan waters only. The moment a boat moved out of Libyan waters it no longer remained my remit," Gafà explains. He says that he used to communicate with his contacts in the Libyan coastguard and if the situation remained unresolved, he would up the ante by contacting the Libyan interior ministry. "These were operations that would last for hours on end. I would be calling every 15 minutes, relaying new coordinates and tap- ping different contacts in the Lib- yan coastguard. We did not have red carpet treatment and it took a lot of patience and many hours of convincing," Gafà says. Gafà says that between July 2018 and January 2019 around 53 mi- grant boats were prevented from reaching Malta's SAR in this way. He adds that the situ- ation used to get more complicated when several migrant boats would have departed at the same time and the Italians would also be pressuring the Libyan coastguard to intervene before boats reached their search and rescue area (SAR). Gafà was not a diplomat and yet he was tasked to maintain this covert com- munication channel. I ask him why he and not the AFM got involved with the Libyan coast- guard. He smiles: "I don't know how to answer you on the AFM. I have good relations with the Libyans and my word counts. There is a cultural attitude where trust has to be earned and once it is, they will always respect you." Averting a 'national crisis' Gafà is unfazed by the sugges- tion that the Maltese govern- ment's decision that he was im- plementing ran counter to what the United Nations was saying about Libya not being a safe country. The UN advocates against the return of migrants to Lib- ya. Human rights organisa- tions have also documented many instances of migrant abuse inside Libyan detention centres. Malta's efforts disre- garded these warnings. Gafà gives me a legalistic answer. "This wasn't a push- back. All the interceptions happened inside Libyan territory by Libyan as- sets. We never sent back a boat that would have crossed into Maltese SAR." In many ways, Malta's unofficial policy was in line with that of the EU, which advocated helping the Libyan coastguard through training and pro- vision of assets to enable the 'rescue' of migrants inside Libyan waters. But why did it have to be him and not the ambassador, a diplomat or ministers, to broker such an arrange- ment, I ask. Last year news reports suggested Malta had entered into a secret pact with Libya to stymie migration f lows and the man acting as go-between was Neville Gafa. The former OPM official tells KURT SANSONE his story The loyal servant and the secret Libya migration deal "This wasn't a pushback. All the interceptions happened inside Libyan territory by Libyan assets. We never sent back a boat that would have crossed into Maltese SAR" Gunboat madness: Libyan militias parading as 'coast guards' are sent out to bring migrants escaping from Libya back to the country. If they are not saved by NGOs like Sea-Eye or Sea Watch, they return to a war-torn country where they face persecution, slavery and inhumane conditions of detention. Yet the EU has cut down on rescue operations, member states have punished NGOs operating in international waters, and the EU has even funded the Libyan coastguard to return boat migrants to the country