Give me shelter

AFM commander Carmel Vassallo says his men have immigration under control, although their resources are being stretched. Just what he needs for CHOGM week

The commander of the Armed Forces, Brigadier Carmel Vassallo, is stifled under the pressure of an influx of some 300 asylum seekers who arrived recently by boat, and who in their majority have all applied for international protection in Malta.
Like all others who arrive here without a passport, they are stuck into the crammed detention centres manned by the army and the police force, awaiting their applications for asylum to be processed. Their wait can take ages, up to a maximum of one year if their application for asylum has not yet been decided.
It’s the army that will have to take care of the bulk of the detainees, constrained by an expensive and inefficient detention policy carved by the Home Affairs Ministry, which locks up asylum seekers who are also illegal migrants for a year before they are awarded access to the labour market.
Vassallo could do without the task, which has hampered the army’s operations ever since Malta became a regular obstacle to European freedom for the boatloads of migrants leaving North Africa. For the past three years, the army has had to restructure its operations to man the detention centres. The situation has got so much out of hand that riots have become inevitable, particularly epitomised by the incidents in January when the army resorted to a violent response to quell a peaceful protest by detainees at Hal-Safi – 23 detainees and two soldiers were injured in the skirmish. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi beat the magistrates by getting a retired judge to hold an inquiry into the violent beatings – so far the inquiry that had to be conducted ‘as soon as possible’ has not yet been finalised. Without any judicial function, the inquiry’s verdict cannot pinpoint criminal liability for what happened in Hal-Safi. And with the influx stretching Malta’s resources to a limit, the effect of judgement on the Safi incident is bound to be diluted.
Vassallo acknowledges his role as army man – he follows orders, he doesn’t do policy. But for a minute he takes of his commander’s hat and mulls over the tragedy that unfolds before his eyes.
“It should never be the case to alarm people, although there are still people who are making certain statements. But the problem is there,” he says. “Italy’s problem is not as big as ours with their landmass and the numbers they receive. We believe that proportionately, every asylum seeker in Malta is equal to 150 arrivals in Italy, the UK or Spain. With so many resources at its disposal, Malta’s problem is relatively greater than Italy’s. Since the landings started in 2002, the arrivals managed to almost eclipse Malta’s annual population growth and in 2004 were almost equivalent to half of Malta’s birth rate. Which country, in terms of numbers, is taking on so many asylum seekers when compared to birth rate?”
His opinion reflects to some extent the common fear expounded by the Maltese – that the small size of the island cannot cope with the arrivals. But what can you do: get the Maltese to churn out more babies just to make the juxtaposition a tad less scarier? It’s an extrapolation which I tell Vassallo is at times unfair, only made worrying by the fact that the country is still not well-prepared to take on these mass influxes.
So say the government ministers at least, fuelling the artificial flame of panic to have the country on its feet when it decides to suspend its international obligations, as Tonio Borg’s belligerent statements to the Financial Times claimed. Because the commander, who knows the country is bound by international law to provide international protection for genuine refugees, dispels the actual fear of crisis.
“I don’t think we have anything to be alarmist about. The situation is becoming difficult, true. Even where the word ‘crisis’ is being used, it purely relates to the fact that we are taking care of 900 detainees, and it serves as a description of the global context of the migration phenomenon.
“I wouldn’t dream of refusing help to a boat in need for rescue. Today we are continuously pouring our efforts on irregular immigration, including our maritime and air squadrons. And we are basically ready to go out and rescue any boat in danger. Recently we rescued a group of boat people who had actually got caught up in a tuna pen.”
The Maltese however love statistics – you can hear them blare out fantastic figures of armies of Africans coming to take over the island. Maybe it’s because this small island, with its 400,000 residents (11,000 of which are Brits, Russians, Serbs, Arab peoples, amongst an assortment of other beautiful Asians and Europeans), which also welcomes a frightful influx of 1.2 million tourists (immigrants with socks and sandals), cannot cope with… wait for it: 2,000 helpless Africans in need.
Or maybe it’s because they are black, which is, God help them, the equivalent of going to jail on the grand monopoly board of life. Add to that their less than glamorous entrance as they rudely land up on the coast in a ramshackle vessel. Straight to a prison where they will spend the next year in a hell-hole, and presto – you have ‘criminal’ beaming onto television screens, the tragedy on your box rendered null by the comfort of your living room.
Vassallo says the army is here to do the best it can. “The army is being asked to provide as much as possible space for immigrants and the personnel to administer this space and provide for security, and everything else needed to keep them in our home, including food and medical services. For that service we are being helped by the Medical Association of Malta and the Health Department, a service which is very important since we need a doctor and a nurse on site to examine them. Otherwise we would have to take sick immigrants to hospital by means of military transport, escorted by soldiers and at considerable expense to the AFM.”
But the problems of the government’s detention policy are visible. The AFM is currently housing some 900 migrants, unprecedented for the army. Vassallo remarks about the considerable difficulties to cope with irregular migration. “It is in fact different from the situation we had with the Asian refugees from Uganda, since there was governmental agreement in that case, where a number of them were accepted into the Tigne barracks. It was done in an organised manner, not as in this case, where we wouldn’t know who they are or from where they came from. In this case, we don’t obviously know when they are coming.”
But Vassallo wants to break the myth that Malta’s coasts have been, by the sheer force of the island’s goodwill, opened to all and sundry to enter. “Whose coasts are not open? Italy’s or Spain’s?” he says, stating that peaceful crossings by boat in territorial waters cannot be stopped, not even by the Mediterranean’s largest nations whose state-of-the-art equipment monitors their entire coasts and seas. “This is another myth that needs to be cleared. You cannot stop boats and if they are in distress you have to rescue them.”
Malta’s search and region is an extensive patch of the Mediterranean basin that reaches far out practically reaching Greece. In line with international obligations, the AFM coordinates all possible action with other countries, or on its own, to save peoples’ lives in danger at sea, even at the furthest point of the region, whether on its own steam or getting other nations to cooperate.
“It is not an easy task, but we have highly-trained officials who can do this job and enjoy doing it because they are saving lives.”
In fact, if you could just perform the mental exercise of obliterating the grave beatings which happened in Hal-Safi in January, the army has in fact been stretching itself to accommodate all the asylum seekers it was entrusted with, even making room by ceding its own quarters for the detained migrants. They couldn’t do otherwise. Its units are also occupied with taking care of the migrants. The maintenance unit have to focus on the buildings hosting the asylum seekers, keeping these places clean and functioning day and night.
“Of course, we need to count on asylum seekers keeping this place clean as well. With so many large numbers of asylum seekers housed in one place, it is hard to keep these places clean, and this is to be expected, even having to quell fights between asylum seekers from different cultures or tribes.”
The commander’s reaction and support teams are also focused on the asylum seekers. Around 120 soldiers are directly employed at the closed centres, not only for security but also for administration, and accompanying these people to hospital. Another 30 or so soldiers are employed in the kitchens and on procurements connected with irregular immigrants.
Added to that is the gravest problem of all – training has been reduced to its minimum requirements. “We are trying hard to keep training requirements at their minimum level whilst we take care of the asylum seekers. It is difficult to keep up the basic military work, although these functions are still being carried out. We are moving closer to a point towards compromising this work, whilst at the same time we cannot compromise the work of the infantry, the bomb disposal unit, the work of the maritime and air squadrons, combat engineering – this work has to continue. There is little room for manoeuvre at this point.”
Vassallo hopes that international diplomacy will yield a breather, maybe in terms of funds or more resources, both for Malta and its neighbouring states, to crack the human smuggling networks and control departures on the Libyan coast.
“The arrival by boat of asylum seekers and migrants is a new phenomenon, at least for the Mediterranean. Co-operation between states is certainly not ideal as we would like it, but we have always had good relations with Italy, and we’re trying to reach this same level of co-operation with the Greeks. We also have had good relations with Tunisia and Libya on previous expeditions where they helped us as best as they could.
“In the case of immigration, the Libyans claim they do not have enough means to monitor their expansive coastline and their borders on Africa to control land influxes. I think there is need for a greater will to control illegal immigration. The problem is clear – the immigrants coming to Malta by boat are not Arabic, but mostly hailing from sub-Saharan Africa. It is likely that there are hundreds and thousands of migrants into Libya who have lost their jobs or cannot work and are looking for a better life abroad. What affects us is the sea border, since this is from where they are leaving for the EU. But there is need for greater control at the land borders with the other African states, with Chad, Egypt and other nations. What is certain is that they are finding undergound organisations which are smuggling them across the sea to Italy, for a lot of money. Malta happens to be in the centre of the route from Libya and Sicily.”
Vassallo believes the island is making its utmost effort on a political level to gain assistance on this matter. No representation in Africa makes the process of asylum and repatriation lengthier and problematic, since immigration has to liase with Rome-based consulates. He also wants to see Malta using all its capacity to maintain relations with Libya, work for a repatriation agreement, on the same lines we have with Italy.
“On this particular aspect of the problem, however, one should ask the appropriate authorities. What we have to ask is how the EU and the G8 is going to help the crisis facing African nations – this is something that Malta cannot do. Malta can only tackle the problem affecting it directly.”
Libya comes under focus, specifically where two common routes leading from their coast to Italy are concerned. There is also the probability of human trafficking by means of ships sailing closer to Malta, Lampedusa and Sicily, releasing small boats or dinghies with migrants who would have shorter distances to travel in order to reach a coast safely. The AFM will go out for sea for any boat in danger or suspicious. If it does not ask for help, all it can do is monitor its passage through the seas, and inform the Italian authorities if they are heading towards Italy. “If a boat is passing from outside our waters and enters our territorial waters, we cannot stop it despite our sovereign rights, because such a boat has the right to innocent passage.”
Vassallo believes the persistence of the problem calls for the creation of a new unit to handle immigration. “We will probably either have to increase the army or the police force, or better still create a separate entity to care for people who are in detention. Because this kind of situation warrants people who are trained in dealing with people from different cultures and religions. This problem came upon us unexpectedly and we have had to accept it. The security forces of our country are doing their utmost in carrying out its duties as best as it can.”
This year his army’s budget has already finished. Whereas last year’s allocation was enough, that same amount was already spent by mid-July for the material needs and accommodation of asylum seekers. An additional allocation has been provided.
“That is not really the problem. What we are seeing now is an explosive increase in the bills for electricity and water, and to keep our kitchens going. Added to that are the salaries of our officials.
“Of course, this would be the same amount paid to army soldiers whatever the case or situation – however they would be doing the work that the army usually performs.”