Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/779073
ing to obtain 'credibility' through a very public deportation. In fact, it would have been more accurate to name the EU-Africa 'Summit on Migration' a 'Summit on Deportation', for that is in es- sence all that was discussed and decided upon: 'aid' to sub-Saha- ran governments in exchange for their assistance in identifying and readmitting deportable citizens of their respective country. The EC communication refers to this scheme as "mainstream- ing migration into development cooperation". There is no guar- antee that the financial 'aid', in the form of an 'Emergency Trust Fund for Africa' created during the summit, will reach beyond the im- mediate entourages of the receiv- ing national governments; and as the summit conclusions dispose, the deportation flights are to be paid for by that same fund. Un- like remittances sent by emigrated workers, which are more digni- fied, more localised (reaching the people who need them), and more effective in shrinking the planetary wealth gap, the 'aid' appears to constitute little more than a legally sanctioned intercontinental bribe. Competitive citizenship But there is another, somewhat more surreal context in which the detention of the Malians is taking place, and another group of people to display 'credibility' to besides European ministers and Maltese citizens of an ethno-nationalist conviction. In the same week of the collective arrest, Owen Bon- nici, the Minister for Justice and Culture, spoke at the 10th Global Residence and Citizenship Confer- ence at the Savoy Hotel in London, advertising the sale of the Mal- tese 'golden passport' to potential clients who, as celebrated by the minister himself, "lead lifestyles we can only imagine". Those potential purchasers of Maltese passports are referred to within the booming citizenship- by-investment sector as UHNWIs: ultra-high net worth individu- als, or investors – depending on whether you consult the website of Henley & Partners, or their ma- jor competitors Arton Capital, the creators of the colourfully interac- tive Passport Index portal that has been doing the rounds in inter- national media. According to this Fifa-style visa ranking, the Maltese passport is currently in joint 9th place in terms of the privilege of movement it offers (visa-free trav- el to 150 countries). And yet, it is around a million euros cheaper to buy than its closest Schengen com- petitor, the passport of Cyprus, currently in 13th place. The fact that this competitive ranking of citizenships even exists is enough to indicate that 'free- dom of movement' has become a purely exotic humanist concept. Nation-state governments par- ticipate in the flourishing of the citizenship-by-investment market very gladly – and the taller the global capitalist pyramid grows, the greater the profits to be made from millionaires seeking a higher privilege of mobility than the one they inherited or were born to. (For a riveting in-depth enquiry into citizenship sale, read Atossa Abrahamian's book The Cosmop- olites: The Coming of the Global Citizen). Citizenship is also a knot, for bet- ter or for worse: like serfs return- able to their masters, the nine de- tainees have been declared legally deportable after their identifica- tion as Malian subjects by a visit- ing delegation from their govern- ment. In order to buy 'out' of their citizenship, they would need to buy 'into' a new one – for instance, by purchasing a Maltese passport for €650,000 plus (profitable) in- vestments in property and govern- ment bonds – a luxury they cannot afford. And neither can the overwhelm- ing majority of us, on whichever side of the Mediterranean we hap- pen to live. As citizens, we are all subjects. Our passports are a privi- lege that we pay for, and as indicat- ed in small print inside – see note 6 in the Maltese passport – they are the property of our government, and can be invalidated, withdrawn or cancelled at any time. In some countries, such as the UK and particularly the US, it costs sub- stantially more to renounce one's nationality than it does to renew one's passport. Our passports are not ours, and neither is our citizenship. To paraphrase and update the words of Hannah Arendt in her seminal essay 'We Refugees', more than being a relative guarantee of safe passage and consular protection, more than a formal booklet prov- ing our existence or citizenship, 'our' passports indicate which lev- el of the global economic pyramid we are born into, or have afforded to opt into. That level then deter- mines the size and shape of the world we can travel within. But though we may 'hold' a passport, it is not ours to own, and much less to sell. The fact that the planned collec- tive 'return' of people from Malta to Mali obeys an EU framework does not make the deportation any more humanely justifiable, nor less personally humiliating. Aside from the scoring of cred- ibility points within EU circles in the run-up to the Maltese presi- dency of the Council, within the parallel context of passport sales, the announcements of planned deportation can easily be seen as a marketing stunt: what "credibil- ity" would Malta have with Henley & Partners and their many local subagents (including those run by lawyers who are Members of Par- liament in opposition), and among the ultra-high net worth purchas- ers of Maltese citizenship, were the expensive privilege not un- derpinned by a deportation policy at the lower end of the social and economic pyramid? Deportation as missile When news of the collective round-up, detention and an- nounced deportation of Malians from Malta came through, I hap- pened to be in France, giving crea- tive writing workshops to refugee women and immigrant teenagers, to help them relate and over- come their experiences of border crossing and discrimination. The electricity I used to keep up with the developments at home came from nuclear power, running on uranium very probably extracted from Mali. A subterranean fruit of invasion and colonialism, that France relies on to this day. Despite the ongoing instabil- ity in the uranium-rich north, for deportation purposes, Mali is now being considered as a 'safe country' by the EU. Likewise Af- ghanistan, another target of the current collective return policy. Whether or not the nation of ori- gin is considered 'safe' or 'unsafe' is relevant, though it is often more a question of the deporting coun- try freeing itself of guilt. Even if one is forcibly 'returned' to the safest place on earth, de- portation remains a profound hu- miliation, and a form of torture, both physical and psychological. It is also a brutal means by which the upper echelons of capital- ism assert their economic and racial hegemony over the lower part. Accompanying deportations with 'aid' is not only cynical, but counter-effective, as in this case it pays African government of- ficials to accept the north-south divide – and as they are in power locally, such divide in any case af- fects them much less, whilst the poorer sectors of society are kept in poverty. The Mediterranean Sea is an essential part of that weapon, a wide-open mouth that swallows some bodies and spits out oth- ers. And Malta is there in the centre, trying to portray itself as 'rive nord' as possible, through the sale of Schengenois citizen- ship, through EU-supported de- portations, and now the pitching of legalised pushbacks to Libya – which is doubtfully any safer than post-coup Turkey. Solidarity, not compassion In the same Sunday morning sermon following the announce- ment of the planned repatria- tion, Muscat conceded that some Maltese may 'feel sorry' for the apprehended Malians. This mag- nanimous attempt at humani- sation merely adds salt to the wounds. We should stand up for people placed in detention and threatened with deportation not out of charity, and neither out of compassion. To call for 'amnesty' may make sense in the legal con- text, but the word again places the burden of blame on the innocent and powerless, on those who have been 'illegalised'. We should stand up – and walk – for people facing deportation as citizens who do not own our citi- zenship, that is, as subjects, as we pay our government for the privi- lege to travel and migrate, we are all vulnerable to having that privi- lege withdrawn, and it is not ours to sell. Antoine Cassar's Passaport, a long poem printed in the form of an 'anti-passport' for all peoples and all landscapes, has been published in 10 languages, and adapted for the stage in Malta, France, Italy, Belgium and Australia. www.antoinecassar.info 17 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 JANUARY 2017 NOTICE Iden ty Malta Agency would like to inform the general public that the following departments located at Evans Buildings will be closed on Friday the 3rd of February 2017: Ci zenship Residence Passports Office Public Registry We apologise for any incovenience caused. www.iden tymalta.com Anguish, a sculpture made out of chains, by Yeong Deok-Seo Seen in mid-November at Larnaca airport, Cyprus: an installation advertising the sale of passports, disguised as an interactive info portal with encyclopaedic buzz. "Become a Global Citizen ®" was registered as an EC trademark on behalf of Arton Capital in July 2013. Arton's Instagram account describes the installation as "the ultimate pre-flight entertainment"