Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/470920
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 MARCH 2015 News 13 TEODOR RELJIC THE Maltese media landscape is pluralistic in its approach to migra- tion, but it needs to become less po- larised and more inclusive of migrant perspectives, media analyst Carmen Sammut said yesterday. Sammut was speaking at the 'Hu- manities on Migration' conference organised by the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta, which aimed to present a perspective on migration that moves away from typical – and usually political or economic – dis- cussions of the phenomenon. During her talk, entitled 'Immigra- tion News in Receiving Countries: The Case of Malta', Sammut – a lec- turer at the International Relations department of the University of Mal- ta – argued that the Maltese media landscape does present a varied ideo- logical perspective. However when it comes to migration, media outlets tend to comment on migration with- out providing space for migrants to voice their own concerns, in their own words. "Sometimes we get to hear from Malta's Imam – it helps that he speaks fluent Maltese – but when it comes to ethnic diversity in Maltese media, it tends to stop there," Sammut said, citing the "short-lived experiment" of the 2013-14 publication Side by Side as an example of how this deficit can be tackled. A 12-month EU-funded project by SOS Malta, Side by Side allowed foreigners living in Malta to speak directly about their experience – pre- cisely the kind of perspective that the mainstream media model in Malta lacks, according to Sammut. Sammut said that generally speak- ing, media outlets can serve as "agen- da-setters, especially when politicians do not take a clear stance on any given issue", noting that migration is a case in point. "It was only dur- ing the 2008 elections that politicians stopped walking on eggshells when it came to migration, and to some ex- tent they still do." Sammut contends that this lacuna in political discourse allows the media to underline public discourse more prominently. Basing her research on interviews conducted with journalists from various Maltese media organisations during the 2006-08 period, Sammut also identified a clear rift between English language newspapers and their Maltese-language counterparts. "English-language media tend to take the 'human rights position' on migration, while Maltese newspapers tend to over-emphasise its economic and security-related aspects," Sam- mut said. However, she also noted some key – and telling – develop- ments within individual organsations on this issue. For example, the General Workers' Union print organ l-orizzont shifted towards a more tolerant attitude in recent years, according to Sammut: from running alarmist stories about migrant prostitutes introducing dis- eases to the country and migrants smuggling homemade weapons into the country, Sammut noted how the publication has since shown itself to be sup- portive of migrant work- ers' rights. She also came across individual examples that belied the appar- ently monolithic struc- tures of local media institutions. One jour- nalist employed with a political newspaper told Sammut that he was discouraged from espousing his racist views in print, since this would "compro- mise the paper's po- litical message". Another journalist who had foot- age of AFM soldiers beating migrants at an open centre fought to get the story published despite conflict- ing editorial interests. However, the journalist confessed to Sammut that while he had no problem passing the footage on to Amnesty International, he stopped short of selling it to an Italian news organisation, fearing the impact it would have on Malta's reputation abroad. Another interviewee said they were sympathetic to migration, but were also mindful of the fact that the read- ership may not be in line with their stance, warning that news outlets will lose their viability if they don't respond to public anxieties for a sus- tained period of time. However, Sam- mut pointed out that by playing to populist fears, the me- dia can give way to "moral panics", as she sees happening right now in rela- tion to the ISIS threat. treljic@mediatoday.com.mt TIM DIACONO AN ongoing debate about whether the genetic identity of the Maltese honeybee has been placed at risk by a recent large-scale importation of bee colonies, certified to be from France, will be taken up to the European Par- liament. Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola has submitted a parliamentary ques- tion, asking the European Commis- sion whether they are aware of the potentially harmful effects that this importation could have on the Maltese honeybee. "I wanted to know more about any effects the importation of foreign queen bees may have on the local bee species," Metsola told MaltaToday. "Over the past few months, a number of people have brought this issue to my attention and highlighted their concerns about having an influx of foreign bees interbreed with our local bee population." In January, Italian apiculturist Er- manno de Chino imported 445 nu- cleus bee colonies to Gozo, for use by his new company Melita Bee Limited to produce queen bees for export. Local beekeepers have expressed their concerns with MaltaToday that de Chino's new bees could interbreed on a large scale with the local honeybee (Apis Mellifera Ruttneri), producing aggressive hybrid offspring and even- tually even altering the bee's DNA. A 1997 study by Washington State University professor Walter Sheppard proved that Ruttneri is a unique sub- species, endemic to Malta but geneti- cally more related to North African bees than to European ones. A 2014 Masters' dissertation by Sheryl Sam- mut confirmed these findings. "83% of the colonies I had identified in my study were of an African lineage, indicating that the Maltese bee has remained resilient in the face of past pests and foreign importations," Sam- mut told MaltaToday. "Bees are vital to the world's food chain, responsible for pollinating one in three bites of the food we eat," Met- sola explained. "Apiculture also plays a crucial part in Europe's Agricultural Sector, contributing at least €22 billion to European agriculture. The EU has been at the global forefront in taking action to protect bee colonies and has, since 2010, launched a wide range of initiatives to ensure that the decline in Europe's bee population comes to an end." 'No scientific evidence to stop bee importation' The government and De Chino have downplayed these fears, arguing that bees have been imported in the past and that there is no scientific evidence that could warrant a ban on the im- portation of healthy European bees to Malta. "There is no scientific foundation to all of this alarmism when the importa- tion of foreign bees has been going on for several years," environment minis- ter Leo Brincat told Parliament. "It is this unfounded alarmism that is harming the local bee industry. The importation of bees from EU member states is free and no European govern- ment has the right to prohibit it." 3,342 bee colonies were registered on the islands before De Chino's im- portation. 482 of these were located in Gozo, the majority in Nadur and Xaghra, meaning that De Chino's im- portation has effectively doubled the number of bee colonies on the island. The government has no information on what percentage of these colonies is of the Ruttneri variety, the sheer scale of which has got Maltese beekeep- ers fearing for the future of Ruttneri's DNA and its adaptability to the Mal- tese climate. "Studies have proved that the Mal- tese honeybee has evolved over time into a completely endemic species, a very hard-working species that can thrive in Malta's hot summers," Malta Beekeepers Association presi- dent Stephen Galea told MaltaToday. "Italian and French bees, on the other hand, are used to kinder, sunflower- filled environments." When asked in Parliament whether he could guarantee that De Chino's importation will not result in the crea- tion of aggressive hybrids, Leo Brincat said that "nobody can guarantee things that depend on nature". Maltese bee debate buzzes to Europe, government denounces 'alarmism' 'Maltese media needs minority voices' – Carmen Sammut A step in the right direction? Carmen Sammut said Maltese media needs more diverse ethnic voices, such as MaltaToday blogger Farah Abdi, who speaks about the immigrant's experience in Malta from an 'insider' perspective IT requires patience, a strong will, and also timing. As dawn breaks every Friday morning, the identity card office at the Evans Building in Valletta sends out its guard to meet some 150 migrants – of various African nationalities, some Middle East- ern – who have been queuing up all night to get into the office and ap- ply for an e-residence card. As the automatic gate opens to let in the first employees at around 6am, the guard comes up to the mi- grants assembled outside. Many of them have slept rough, coming as early as 10pm on Thursday night to put down their name on a list han- dled by one of the migrants. But the guard has bad news: the ID office is only going to take in 40 clients. A murmur of discontent and then chaos. Infighting breaks out, as two- thirds of the people waiting for their e-residence card are going to brave another night next Friday. "I have to renew my ID card and I only have one day to do that, which is Friday, and there are a lot of peo- ple here. Without it, you cannot re- new your working permit. "I'm working here paying taxes, to go to work. It is not fair. Once we are working, paying taxes, we should be able to renew our document free and fair like the others. I have come and sleep in this weather just to be able to work to support my family," Stephen Morphy, a Liberian mi- grant who has been in Malta since 2003, complains. Morphy stands out as a living example of the failure of a system that is actually pushing him into il- legality: here he is braving the cold January night trying to secure a le- gal status so that he can continue working, but instead he is treated as a second-class citizen by having just one day in which he can have his e- residence card renewed. Once migrants qualify for protec- tion the first thing they have to do is to apply for an e-residence card. Without it they cannot access pub- lic services such as benefits, work permits, or even open a bank ac- count. I passed through this same night- mare years ago upon getting refugee protection. I was shocked to realise that migrants have to sleep over- night on Thursday so as to access the service on Friday morning – while the office is open to the public Monday to Friday. I left home on Thursday at 9:30pm to see the situation for myself. Along the way down to Evans Building, on Merchants' Street I encountered a Gambian national on the street. Kante Yamadou, in Malta since 2007, told me that many migrants had already convened outside Evans Building but that they had been dis- persed by the police. The police probably don't know that many of those migrants will not access the service in the morn- ing and that will prevent them from getting a work permit. By 11pm, many of the migrants had returned to Evans Building, now getting ready for the long cold night ahead of them. They organised themselves and started to write a list of the mi- grants, one after the other, in order to create an ordered queu- ing system. By the time we wrote down the list of names, the queue totalled 68 at 1:30am. It was hard for them to open up with me. Many of the migrants come from countries where de- mocracy and free speech are non- existent, and they fear they will be in trouble if they speak out publicly. Omar Siz Ahmed, from So- malia, arrived in Malta in 2006. "It's very cold. We have no choice… because we can only come here on Friday. You have to sleep here all time. If we had three days in the week, we could have some choice. But when it's only Friday, it's too little time for so many people needing the service." Like him, Morphy finds it frustrat- ing that he is facing this situation after living in Malta for 12 years, in a place he now calls home. By 2am, the place resembles a ref- ugee camp, with mats and blankets thrown onto the pavement. More migrants were coming, having walked from Msida and Gzira. Chaos erupted at five in the morn- ing when the guards came to work and told them that the office was only going to see 40 people that day. Even the migrant women who were afraid of speaking out earlier in the night got involved in the scuff le, in the hopes of accessing a spot. This was truly survival of the fittest at its best, with migrants fighting it out among themselves to secure them a limited number of tickets for the right to work. There is no doubt that the system here has failed these members of the community who justifiably feel they are being robbed of equal ac- cess to the service, by being granted just one day to renew their e-ID. Questioned by MaltaToday, the new home affairs minister, Car- melo Abela, has dubbed the situ- ation "inhumane" after having as- sessed the matter personally. "The decision to allow migrants to apply on a particular day of the week was taken long before Identity Malta was established. In 2014 Identity Malta organised an outreach programme to accept residence applications from the premises of the Refugee Commis- sion and the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers (AWAS). Since then, the number of migrants ap- plying at AWAS decreased signifi- cantly and eventually the service stopped being offered from their office. The service offered from the Refugee Commission is still ongoing," he said. "Lately, for a number of reasons, there was an increase in the ap- plications at the Department for Citizenship and Expatriate Af- fairs in Valletta," Abela said, since expired documents were all be- ing issued on the same date and therefore had to be renewed on the same date. Abela said that in a bid to reduce queues, Identity Malta will be opening an office close to the Hal Far open centre, on a more regular basis. Whether this could make the system more efficient, or indeed exacerbate its ghettoization is yet to be seen. Additional reporting by Matthew Vella maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 JANUARY 2015 News Migrants sleep rough as they try to access 'inhumane' public service Farah Abdi grant who has been in Malta since the service on Friday morning – It was hard for them to open up with me. Many of the migrants come from countries where de- mocracy and free speech are non- existent, and they fear they will be in trouble if they speak out publicly. Omar Siz Ahmed, from So- malia, arrived in Malta in 2006. "It's very cold. We have no choice… because we can only come here on Friday. You have to sleep here all time. If we had three days in the week, we could have some choice. But when it's only Friday, it's too little time for so many people needing the service." Like him, Morphy finds it frustrat- Migrants seeking renewal of e-residence document to continue working are effectively pushed into illegal work because they can only access the ID card office in Valletta on a Friday. Home Affairs Minister $BSNFMP"CFMBTBZTUIFTZTUFNJTAJOIVNBOFtWATCH THE VIDEO ONLINE AT MALTATODAY.COM.MT Migrants sleep outside Evans Building in Valletta on a Thursday night waiting for the identity card office to open. Stephen Morphy (top right) has been in Malta since 2003 and has to renew his e-residence card so that he can have his work permit. He has to wait outside and put his name on a list (bottom right). But not all the 100-odd migrants are allowed into the ID office at 6am and they are left to fight it out between themselves (bottom centre)