Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1526669
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 SEPTEMBER 2024 4 INTERVIEW Christine Cassar: 'Government is picking on vulnerable groups' GOVERNMENT is systematically targeting certain "vulnerable" communities when round- ing up people to deport them, Moviment Graf- fitti activist Christine Cassar believes. The Ethiopian community has been shocked after many individuals, who have been legal- ly living and working in Malta for up to 19 years, are being arrested at their workplaces, detained, and informed they will be deported back to Ethiopia. Five Ethiopian men have been detained at the Safi Detention Centre, following a series of government raids on the island's long-es- tablished migrant community. Branding this an operation which has "ter- rorised" migrant communities across the country, Cassar tells me it is a product of a government whose operations are slow to react. The activist says the action is already having repercussions, with migrants who spoke to the NGO telling them that they are scared to go to work out of fear that they might be arrested. She says if government and the authorities want to crackdown on people residing in Malta illegally, after failing to be granted ref- ugee status, it should do so immediately and efficiently. "They had been granted a work permit, were regularly employed, were paying Na- tional Insurance and were paying taxes. It is shocking," she says. She also argues that in a context were thou- sands of third-country nationals are being brought into the country to fill jobs, deport- ing five people who have been trained to car- ry out their job, "just doesn't make sense". "What will change if they are removed? What is the end result? Nothing," she says. Cassar also insists people should look at the humanity of such situations. She points out the children these people have spent all their life in Malta, have grown up as Maltese and follow Maltese customs. She insists there is no benefit in ignoring their reality. "They will end up being repatriated to a country they have no knowledge of," she says. "Or they will end up growing up frus- trated and angry adults, which down the line would serve as a bigger burden on society." Ultimately, the NGO believes the right thing to do is grant these individuals citizen- ship. With several Ethiopian people who have lived in Malta for almost two decades facing deportation, Moviment Graffitti activist Christine Cassar believes government is systematically targeting certain vulnerable groups, while failing to address systemic failures. She speaks to Karl Azzopardi.