Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/622858
www.maltatoday.com.mt wednesday edition wednesday • 6 January 2016 • issue 450 • published every wednesday and sunday €1.00 Newspaper post Young biker dies in traffic accident Boyfriend pays emotional tribute to 'wonderful person' who suffered 'disgraceful death' MiriaM Dalli A 26-year-old woman lost her life in a tragic traffic accident yester- day at around 8am in Naxxar, on her way to work. Johanna Boni was riding her Kawasaki ER6N along Labour Avenue towards Lija when a colli- sion between the bike and a mixer truck belonging to Ballut Blocks Ltd took place. A 52-year-old man from Mel- lieha was driving the truck, filled with concrete ready for delivery at a construction site in Attard. The vehicles were being driven in the same direction. A police investigation and a magisterial inquiry led by Mag- istrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera will seek to establish how this year's first fatal traffic accident occurred. As per procedure, the truck was impounded by the police pending the inquiry. Preliminary investigations suggest that, upon impact, the rider was crushed beneath the wheels. The Kawasaki remained stuck under the truck's front bumper when the larger vehicle came to a halt. The Police's commu- nications office would not confirm the victim's identity and said that forensic tests will be car- ried out to confirm her identity. Boni's boyfriend wrote a moving message on his Face- book wall, in which he described her loss as "a disgraceful death to such a wonderful person." PaGE 3 Only 272 refugees relocated as EU plan stalls JurGEn Balzan Malta has yet to take in any refugees as agreed by EU leaders following last year's huge exodus as the latest report from the EU shows that only 272 people from Italy and Greece out of a total of 160,000 have been relocated. the latest figures show that the EU has miserably failed to deal with the refugee crisis, in which over a million refugees, mainly from Syria, afghanistan and Iraq f led to Europe. the European Commission said that, of the 160,000 refugees in Italy and Greece, only 190 had been relocated from Italy, and just 82 from Greece. On its part, Malta made a com- mitment to host 131 refugees who are in Italy and Greece, but as of last Monday none had ar- rived. So far, Malta has engaged two migration experts and estab- lished a national contact point. Speaking to Maltatoday, home affairs minister Carmelo abela admitted that the process was "slow," however he pointed out that Malta had not yet received the list of refugees selected for relocation by Italy and Greece. "We have done what we were asked to do, namely to provide the number of refugees Malta is ready to take in on a quarterly basis. this process was complet- ed in September and now we are waiting for the respective coun- tries to select the refugees." He added that Malta has com- mitted to take in 189 refugees over two years. abela explained that once Greece and Italy provide the documentation and list of refu- gees, Malta will initiate a screen- ing process and once the people obtain a security clearance they will be relocated to Malta. One key failure in the reloca- tion process has been the in- ability to engage experts dealing with refugees in the so-called "hotspots," chief ly in Italian and Greek islands. In lampedusa and Sicily, Italian authorities only have 40 experts to deal with 2,250 refugees. PaGE 7 The Kawasaki stuck under the truck. Inset: Johanna Boni