Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1278887
MATTHEW VELLA A man once trusted by the dis- graced former prime minister Jo- seph Muscat to secretly deal with Libyan government and militias to stem the flow of the illegal mi- gration to Malta, has become a social media antagonist on immi- gration. Up until his master's resignation in 2019 after the arrest of Yorgen Fenech over the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Nev- ille Gafà's Facebook cover photo sported the words 'I Am A So- cialist'. After his repudiation, the political renegade started flying his true colours: on Twitter he regularly salutes Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italian far-right and anti-immigrant Lega party, or even posts videos of Giorgia Mel- oni, leader of the Italian far-right Fratelli d'Italia. It does not matter that Salvini has already proved unwilling to cooperate with Mal- ta over migrant rescues on the sea borders of the two nations. Gafà is now a political pirate. Gafà, who as a Maltese nation- al has the unlikely combination of being of Muslim faith as well as an ardent support of the GNA government in Libya, today has carved himself a new role, eight months since being thrown out of the Labour administration. Apart from being a visible ally of Keith Schembri, Muscat's former chief of staff and intimate friend of Yorgen Fenech, Gafà acts as an agent provocateur on migrant issues on Facebook and Twitter. With a sizeable following on so- cial media, mainly Labour voters who think of him as a party loyal- ist, Gafà is promoting a petition to MPs that has garnered close to 40,000 signatories who are rail- ing against "illegal immigrants" and do not want Malta to keep its harbours closed during "periods of serious health threats". The petition was launched on 24 April, at the height of the COVID-19 emergency, when It- aly closed its ports and Malta fol- lowed suit. What happened next was a botched attempt by the Maltese government at forcing the EU's hand by keeping almost 400 migrants rescued at sea on four tourist pleasure crafts an- chored at Hurd's Bank. The cost- ly €1.7 million experiment failed to move anyone in Brussels, and the men and women were finally granted access to Malta and their right to file an asylum claim. In the meantime, Gafà the former socialist wages his own war against the Labour estab- lishment, chief among them is foreign minister Evarist Barto- lo. As a confidant of the equally disgraced Keith Schembri, Gafà made Evarist Bartolo a main tar- get over the latter's unstinting criticism of Schembri. "To hit out at critics, you have to be pure of heart," he once said on Facebook in an attack on Bartolo. "Don't think we have forgotten that you once attacked the Prime Minis- ter. Even while you led a delega- tion abroad! Before you judge Mr Schembri, I suggest you compare what you have achieved with his achievements for the good of Malta." By using his self-styled role as a migration intelligencer, Gafà's statements on Facebook always come in the form of a 'big re- veal' even when his information is sourced openly from the work of migrant rescue charities whose movements at sea are promoted on their websites. "Right now there are manoeu- vres to have Malta turned into a refugee camp," Gafà said this week on Facebook after being hauled for questioning over al- leged threats he made on Twit- ter to an Italian journalist, Nello Scavo of Catholic newspaper L'Avvenire. Like much of his statements on Twitter, usually addressed to migrant rescue alert Alarm Phone, Gafà's combative language is all about 'warning' anyone assisting migrant rescues to "stop [their] dirty business". Similarly, he tweeted to Scavo in July: "Stop your dirty business, if not we will be stopping you". This, over Scavo's reports on Malta's attempted pushbacks of migrants rescued at sea. Gafà lies. Malta is no refugee camp, although record arrivals this year will strain its capacities to host migrants rescued at sea in its detention centres. But that opener is only a prelude for his real target. "I am being investigated by Malta's police after a complaint was filed against me by a foreign journalist. A magisterial inquiry has been requested by the foreign ministry – the Maltese ministry, not a foreign one. No such com- plaints will stop me from fighting or broadcast what is happening in the Mediterranean. I haven't even started. There are no com- promises on Malta." His social media followers revel in the 'Malta First' talk. Former Labour candidates, councillors and party officials give him 'likes' and words of encouragement. "Thank you, Neville... keep telling us the truth," is a common com- ment. Gafà, a party insider, knows clearly that Labour's electorate remains categorically the most concerned about migration. Mal- taToday's latest survey shows the main concern of PL voters (18.3%) was migration, a concern also mainly shared by those who live in Labour strongholds in the southeast (18.9%) and southern harbour (18.6%), and those with secondary (17.6%) and post-sec- ondary education (18.2%). To boot, the COVID-19 pan- demic has turned immigration into an 'illegitimate' emergency: a country occupied with its own economic downturn and health emergency has little time for asy- lum claimants. Robert Abela has decided to throw money at the problem, quarantining asylum seekers rescued at sea on ships anchored outside Maltese wa- ters – another expensive, human rights gamble intended at forcing European attention over Malta's inability to host the current in- flux of migrants from Libya. Gafà is maintaining an industri- ous role on Facebook. His social media posts are insidious and deceptive, lauding Libyan coast- guards who bring in migrant boats attempting to leave Libya; and attacking migrant rescue NGOs, accusing them of doing "dirty business" and of being in league with traffickers for rescu- ing people at sea. Yet no Maltese politician is fac- ing up the challenge of delivering a realistic picture of migration, or to take on Gafà as he trades on his former influence to whip up Labour's anti-immigrant sup- port. That will test Labour as it proposes new shows of force and deterrence despite Malta's clear human rights obligations. 7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 AUGUST 2020 NEWS Gafà, the social media provocateur, weaponises Labour's immigration problem Friends: Neville Gafà (right) emerges from court with Keith Schembri, after the latter's testimony in the case against Yorgen Fenech, alleged mastermind in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia Below: Gafà in Libya, where he acted as the Maltese government's unofficial envoy with Libyan government officials and militias Saluting far-rightist Matteo Salvini, a politician whose actions to refuse migrant rescues automatically hurt Malta