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Nationalist MP Franco Galea’s words in parliament are rightfully met with incredulity, but the young backbencher says that when he talks about asylum policy, he is only echoing the opinions of his constituents. 
Franco Galea does not want to be misunderstood, but his words, his concern on illegal immigration, keep cropping up in the most unlikely of places. Case in point is the fascination of the far right with the young Nationalist MP. Almost every time Galea adjourns parliament with a speech on migration and asylum seekers, the far right website vivamalta.org latches onto his words and publishes them in its forum.
“An MP stands tall above the rest” – is the first news item for the internet vagabonds of the far right, the day after Galea lobbed a series of half-baked statements and alarmist questions on immigration. “Malta needs more politicians like Mr Galea,” the internet site says.
So how does that make Franco Galea feel? Certainly, it cannot be said that he stands on the far right along with the vociferous extremism of Norman Lowell acolytes on the web. Anything but that. He confesses extreme worry about the reports on increased racism, on posters protesting against the immigration influx of asylum seekers from Africa. And yet, he says Malta is anything but a racist country, despite the myriad of letter-writers on The Times who concoct antediluvian theories of survival, expressing horror at the advent of some form of ‘invasion’, as the words of the learned parliamentary secretary Tony Abela would go.
His last adjournment in parliament sounded the alarm bells, only to be corrected soon after by home affairs minister Tonio Borg. I met a generously tanned Franco Galea at his hotel at George’s Bay in St Julians, where hundreds of student immigrants, this time legal and European, are walking around. I meet him to try and understand – if this man has stated that 15,000 immigrants will be coming to Malta in the next year, surely he has some good source to back it up. If he candidly lobbed doubtful questions about the increase in prostitution, about clashes between Maltese and migrants being on the increase, then he must have some strong, some real deep insight into the matter.
‘Why was it that most of the migrants were men of a certain age’, Galea asked on Thursday 14 July in parliament. Answer: young men tend to be the usual group of persecuted people escaping mandatory conscription, persecution for being members of an outlawed political party, often leaving home to protect their families. Which goes to answer the other question he asked in parliament, that about wives and families being left behind.
I ask Galea whether his adjournment speech had in fact been irresponsible, gratuitous, certainly alarming enough to have it fuel some more hatred from the far right internet geeks. What it surely looks like, is that Galea will not be talking on immigration for some time.
“I feel I have already given my input on illegal immigration, and I think that I have given enough of my opinion into the subject. The government had already intervened, in my opinion well, on the matter. What we cannot call this some sort of black-and-white issue. Immigration here is not a problem of race. If there is a people who are not racist, it is definitely not Malta.”
Racist, nous? Beg to differ. But Galea believes the national spirit of hospitality still prevails. Instead, he believes it is a question of finance, resources, and space, that Malta cannot handle the influx. Of course the Maltese have a certain skewed sense of charity – it is okay to fork out Lm1 million for Sri Lanka miles away from Malta. But when it comes to dealing with those real problems close to home, spanning from generations of poverty and underdevelopment, that is where the Maltese start complaining. The latest data shows that the Armed Forces of Malta spent something like half a million of liri in the last year, Lm300,000 of which went for wages – probably the same amount they would have been paid whether they had less important things to do than man the detention centres, such as watch out for the enemy. When it comes to building a proper immigration reception centre, one that does not attract worldwide criticism from the UN, the Council of Europe, and Amnesty International – well, then we have a problem of space and funds.
“There are Maltese people who help asylum seekers a lot, who are constantly assisting them through their voluntary work and support. Of course, if you are not given a bed at my house just because I don’t have an extra bed, well that doesn’t mean that I am some form of racist for not having enough space,” Galea contends, who believes Malta should be a voice in calling for the creation of safe zones.
Safe zones. Read European-power-sponsored-ghetto in Africa, far away from bwana. “It is a question of space and resources – we don’t have that. That is why we need to create safe zones. I can’t mention any names of other places which would be suited for safe zones. It would be ideal to have them created in Africa.”
Of course, there were and still are many fancy ideas about having asylum seekers stew in the safe zones for their refugee needs – Libya was even floated as the ideal political camp to house all migrants crossing from Africa to the European mainland. Libya. It isn’t even a party to the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees.
“Repatriation of immigrants doesn’t need to be negative. If the world wants Africa to become the continent they want to it to be, it can be achieved. We can easily overcome the problems, even though they are enormous. But if everyone focuses on one particular area it can succeed. Even Malta can convince the powers that be to create safe zones in the form of villages, for the repatriation of immigrants. For me, instead of having asylum seekers just being legally entitled to work and given money, I think that education is even more important. Education is the key to life for them to take back to the continent – education on hygiene, taking care of water resources, agriculture – an education to build a new life.
“I know there are problems of starvation in Africa, and I am aware of that situation. I believe it has to be the EU to offer development aid to the continent. But if a country can provide a safe zone and camps to host refugees, why can’t this be created?”
Galea defends the content of his speech. He says that as an MP, he is only voicing the concerns that constituents come to share with him, irrespective of whether the far right has a penchant for latching on to his words religiously.
“You know in Malta the scare is fomented by so many articles that are written in the newspapers, which create a certain alarm. It looks like the people are talking about it even without reading the papers alone. You know there are people who are always complaining about foreigners.
“But you have to understand that in parliament you have to place certain questions. It is true that I can get proved wrong,” which in fact he was – but not before he was reported by the newspapers. “What we have to be cautious about is that we are prepared, especially for what could be unexpected. Being prepared does not mean you are being racist. My calculations could have been wrong, and hopefully I am – in Italy there have been 2,000 arrivals in the last weeks. I am delighted that Tonio Borg put us on the right track on that. My intention was certainly not to alarm people.”
Whether that makes his constituents’ concerns justified or not, it is still questionable as to whether Galea’s own filter of these concerns is attuned to the sensitivity of the subject. Why did he talk about an increase in prostitution?
“I put questions. They were questions. When you are an MP you are representing constituents, whom you have spoken to, and have collected their opinions. Is it right to leave out their opinions? We have to see what is happening on the island. Some people remarked to me that there are cases of foreigners who were giving false identities about job opportunities. Remember that identity theft is a crime as well,” he says when asked about what he meant in parliament during his speech about ‘internet cafes accessible to these foreigners’.
“Whatever influx you get, there is going to be some form of reaction. It is like summer with more tourists – bars are going to work more, there will be more people, and I mentioned prostitution in that context. You can look for yourself what is happening during these months. If you see how many people have been arrested on prostitution, you want to see what the multiplier effect has been, in the sense of – who were their clients and what streets were they working on? Could it be that someone who has been locked up for a long time is so frustrated and so has certain needs? Is it wrong to ask that?”
Ultimately, it looks like following that last adjournment, Galea was corrected by Minister Tonio Borg after saying he estimated a possible arrival of some 15,000 migrants. I ask Galea how he arrived at that figure, and he points to an article which said Italy had received between 14,000 and 18,000 immigrants in the last three years – he extrapolated that with Malta’s large search and rescue region, the island would be bound to receive a similar figure.
Irresponsible, alarmist? I ask. “Tonio Borg corrected that. You know it is hard to make a whole argument in 15 minutes. I wanted to be realistic in the situation, where I extrapolated a figure of 18,225 arrivals in Italy in 2002 to 14,017 arrivals last year. My thoughts were that with our large search and rescue region, would it now be dangerous if Malta was not prepared for such an influx?
“But if you think someone must hold back from doing their job because of being misinterpreted, then they might as well stay home. Do people want that? Don’t you see the concern for the nation as something justified? You can be labelled incorrectly because of other peoples’ agendas, even in the case of the far right. If somebody is worried about the country, who am I to tell them they are incorrect? My duty is to talk about it.”
I ask him whether with such an international critique of Malta’s detention policy, he could agree with such an expensive system when EU law now obliges the island to offer asylum seekers the right to work within a year of their application for asylum – at least they can pay their way in a dignified manner, working.
“You first have to see from where this criticism is coming. You know I cannot accept refugees sleeping in bad conditions and on wet mattress. And I believe that a certain harmony has to be created in order to have refugees take care of the reception centres as well. But the question once again is, if you have such a large influx, where are we going to put them? It is like somebody who is unemployed. You just don’t know what to do. And if these people are not doing anything, they at least need some form of education to take back to their country. Am I saying anything wrong with that? That is why I want us to be a country that looks back into history saying that we helped these people and not kicked them out.
“We have to be prepared for any influx, and have the necessary resources. We have to strengthen our position now. We have our values, and we have to help people. If I enter your home would you let me sleep there straight away? You want to see if you have an extra bed for me, right? It doesn’t make you a racist. On the other hand, if you are financially strong, you can definitely help me. And the Maltese do not refuse this kind of help – we want to look back as a nation that overcame this situation.”
Well, Godspeed – Franco Galea may certainly not be a racist – his conscience is clear, even though he still remarked in the concluding words of his adjournment that “Malta should first and foremost be for the Maltese, and it should come first” before it can start helping other people in need. If his speeches are often misguided and incorrect, someone somehow will set him straight – this is in fact the party which he says respects his views as a backbencher, and which gives him space. He is just a soul whose intentions are good. Please don’t let him be misunderstood.
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