Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1292560
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 INTERVIEW then face marginalization, disbe- lief and suspicion during the asy- lum processes. In 2019, only 38% of those who applied for asylum received a positive decision. We also know that people face very different outcomes to their asy- lum claims depending on what member state they apply in. In reality, as we see again with the new Pact, there has been lit- tle emphasis within the EU on shoring up refugee protection, and much more money and at- tention given to policies that deter, detain and deport – of- ten violently. Moreover, in this 'trade-off', the social and finan- cial costs associated with deter- rent measures are rarely taken into account. Meanwhile, EU governments – including Malta – have cited COVID-19 as justification for refusing to disembark rescued migrants. Do you feel that Eu- ropean governments are using the pandemic as a pretext to implement policies that would otherwise be considered inhu- mane? The pandemic has been used by governments, like Malta and Italy, as a justification for clos- ing their ports to people rescued at sea. Just before Easter week- end, as Malta's predominantly Catholic population started to celebrate Jesus's resurrection, Prime Minister Robert Abela closed Malta's ports to refugees' 24 hours later the Italian govern- ment did the same. Exploiting the Covid pandemic as justifi- cation and pointing to the lack of European solidarity on the issue of migrant arrivals, Abela refused to rescue people in dis- tress in Malta's search and res- cue area. That week, four boats, carry- ing an estimated 258 people, left Libya and made their way towards Europe. With all four boats within Malta's search and rescue zone, Malta refused to respond to any of their persis- tent distress calls. Instead, the government instructed a fishing vessel to forcibly and illegally return one boat carrying 51 peo- ple, including seven women and three children, to Libya. Twelve of the original 63 passengers died or were missing by the time the boat arrived. Although delays to rescue and pushbacks at sea by Malta and Italy predate the current mo- ment, the Covid pandemic has given new fuel and justification to deadly deterrent state prac- tices, as Amnesty International's recent report lays out. More recently, 27 people were abandoned by Malta and Europe on board the Maersk Etienne tanker for almost six weeks, de- scribed as the 'longest standoff in European maritime history'. This happened despite the fact that the ship was instructed by Maltese authorities to rescue these people at sea, and despite the fact that after 31 days, three people jumped overboard in desperation. Earlier this year, the Maltese government also de- tained 425 people rescued at sea on tourist boats for over 5 weeks, despite rough weather and de- clining medical conditions. Such inhumane measures are evidently not a rational response to the Covid pandemic. People arriving from Libya by sea have been quarantined in Malta – un- like many of the tourists who have arrived – with limited risk to the general population. Instead of the risks involved with migration, the Covid pan- demic should remind us of the deep inequalities in our own societies, including our unequal access to healthcare, to nature and outdoor space, to safe work environments and to safe homes. In 2013, you criticised succes- sive Maltese governments be- cause "they focus on the num- ber of arrivals rather than the number who remain in Malta, ignore other significant forms of immigration and prioritise deterrent policies such as de- tention, which criminalise and isolate migrants and refugees, while also fuelling racism and fear…" Has anything made you revise that opinion since then? Sadly, my assessment has not changed much since 2013. De- spite ostensible reforms to Mal- ta's detention policy, people are still being kept in detention for months at a time. Recent foot- age from inside Safi detention reveals (yet again) the violent conditions in which we are keep- ing people. Earlier this month, a Sudanese man died trying to es- cape these conditions. In some ways, things have got- ten worse. In the last year, the government appears to have committed to a practice of abandoning people in distress at sea and returning them to Libya, against principles of in- ternational law, to a country we know is rife with violence. Let us be clear, to say that our ports should be closed is to say that people should die at sea or be returned to certain violence and torture in Libya. Could you tell us, in a few words, what sort of 'migration-man- agement system' you yourself would like to see in place? There are many steps that could be taken to improve on the current situation: abolishing or severely limiting the use of detention, creating a robust EU maritime rescue program, end- ing co-operation with the Liby- an coastguard, re-imagining the Dublin Regulation to ease pres- sure on front-line member states and allow people to be resettled to other member states, accord- ing at least in part to their own wishes; and developing integra- tion measures (from education to employment to housing) that enable those who arrive to be- come productive citizens. Yet, we can make little progress on these matters without recog- nizing that European borders, our borders, are violent – they cause people to die at sea, and they continue to marginalize and exclude when people do ar- rive on our shores. Rather than looking to the EU for solutions, I find more hope in the grassroots movements that are resisting and remaking EU borders and our societies every day. Search and rescue NGOs, like Sea-Watch and Alarm- Phone, are rescuing people in distress and holding the EU and its member states accountable for death and abandonment at sea. In 2015, in response to the so- called 'migration crisis' we also saw an enormous groundswell of local support for those arriv- ing from Syria and elsewhere. This was a solidarity that re- jected the EU's violent borders and imagined a different Eu- rope. People and organizations in Malta and across the EU are still supporting those who are newly arrived in Europe, materi- ally, politically and emotionally. At this grassroots level, we find deep and abiding forms of soli- darity that outshine the empty EU rhetoric on state solidarity. More recently, the Black Lives Matter protests in Malta and elsewhere are connecting the vi- olence encountered by refugees to the violence and inequalities that ripple through our societies and are felt most keenly by ra- cialized people, the poor, wom- en, the disabled, and others. In different ways, all these movements are declaring that our ills do not originate from migration – it is not them we should fear – but rather that the struggles of citizens (for safety, housing, employment) are con- nected to the migrant struggle. 'Fortress Europe'