Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1286060
2 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 9 SEPTEMBER 2020 NEWS VACANCY Sewing Machine Operators Job Description: Operation of industrial and professional sewing machines Salary: €9,600 - €12,000 per annum Requirements: Industrial sewing machine operations' experience To apply: Send a CV on spminternationalltd@gmail.com KARL AZZOPARDI THE Nationalist Party yesterday railed against the management of the Corradino Correctional Facility, after a Maltese inmate awaiting extradition to the Unit- ed States on a charge of sexual molestation of children in 1986 and 1987, committed suicide. This is the tenth person to be found dead at the CCF facility in the span of a few years. "This death could have been prevent- ed had the effective protocols been in place," Fenech Adami said. Fenech Adami said home af- fairs minister Byron Camilleri should answer for the streak of prison deaths. "Instead of hiding behind inquiries and statements, the minister should assure the country that the situ- ation will be addressed once and for all. If not, Byron Camilleri has no choice but to resign," he said. A magisterial inquiry on the case has been launched. Nazzareno 'Reno' Mifsud was awaiting a court decision on his extradition after his arrest in August 2010. Mifsud had been living with the alias Ryan in Malta since evading the US charges back in the late 1980s. US prosecutors revisited his case in 2015 and started working to have him ex- tradited to the United States. Corradino Correctional Facil- ity said that Mifsud had tried committing suicide inside CCF but died at Mater Dei Hospital. The death adds on to a host of suicides and deaths that have taken place in the last year in- side CCF. A magisterial inquiry is now underway. Mifsud was a US serviceman who absconded his 1987 trial in Oklahoma after being charged with molesting two young boys in his house. At 23, the Qormi man was charged with having sexually molested his foster-son, aged 15, and his neighbour's son, a 12-year-old boy, inside his home, where he was accused of having tried to rape him. When Mifsud came to Malta, the island's tradition treaty with the United States ruled out the extradition of Maltese citizens back to the US. But Mifsud was tracked down in 2015 by Okla- homa investigators, who also found his Facebook profile. In Malta, Mifsud managed to build a prolific career but with fraudulent qualifications: his LinkedIn profile claimed that he obtained all his degrees, and a doctorate, from "Trinity University", without specifying which university. He claimed to have been "head, ICT governance" at the Office of the Prime Minister between 1999-2001, inside the Central Information Manage- ment Unit in the prime minis- ter's office. It turns out that CI- MU head David Spiteri Gingell hired an external consultant to investigate Mifsud's academic degrees, which were found to be fraudulent. He was suspended and then fired from the public service. Prison suicide of man awaiting US extradition raises PN's ire MATTHEW VELLA A national debate on Malta's efforts to legalise sex work has continued to draw divided opinions after Domestic Violence Commissioner Audrey Friggieri said sex workers should be fully regulat- ed at law. A coalition of anti-trafficking NGOs have ac- cused the government of ignoring submissions against legalising prostitutes and normalising the demand for sex work, without a concerted fight against pimps and human trafficking. In their latest salvo, the coalition of 40 NGOs took Friggieri to task after saying that by regu- lating sex work, it maximised prostitutes' legal protection and their ability to exercise other key rights, such as justice and health care. "Legal recognition of sex workers and their occupation maximizes their protection, dignity and equality. This is an important step towards de-stigmatising sex work," Friggieri told The Malta Independent. She said sex workers who had chosen to work in the industry possessed individual agency and were unlike victims of prostitution. "This is a distinction which the policy makers must keep in mind in this important reform. Both must be protected and empowered,'" she said. But the coalition is raising concern on how to define the nature of "sex work", claiming that pimps and traffickers could employ a legal defi- nition so as to gloss over the horrific experience people in prostitution go through. "This clearly shows her lack of sensitivity to the issue," the coalition said, which also took is- sue at her remark that trafficking and sex work were "distinct realities [that] must be addressed in parallel." "We reiterate that the prostitution and sex trafficking can never ever be separated and must be looked into together," the anti-traf- ficking coalition said. "There would be no traf- ficking for sex if there was no demand for girls, women, boys, men and trans in prostitution – largely to service men with enough money and power to use them. "Furthermore, ample scientific research high- lights the violence and harm that takes place in prostitution, why are these realities being ignored? What is the message being sent out there if such sensitive considerations are not being addressed by the Domestic Violence Commission? Is the Commission willing to turn a blind eye to this type of violence and abuse?" The Coalition agrees with the government's bid not to criminalise persons caught up in prostitution but says any reform must give such persons a way out, rather than punishing them further. "We fully support the development of a model tailored to the local environment; however, it must be founded on the unassailable principle of protecting people from harm and ensuring that the industry does not expand as a result. The proposals of the coalition were built on this principle. Why reject a model that is decreas- ing violence and essentially protecting those in prostitution?" Anti-trafficking coalition steadfast against prostitution legalisation