Sheehan, Kamara and the threshold of disgust

On Wednesday a bullish Prime Minister presented the leader of the Opposition with a challenge: that of providing him with a test of political responsibility every month, presumably drawn from the closet of dark Nationalist secrets kept by Labour as ammunition to thwart any PN recovery.

It was in this context that Muscat published the report on the death of Mamadou Kamara, which also referred to the death of Infeanyi Nwokoye, a 29-year-old Nigerian detainee who also died shortly after a failed escape from the Safi detention centre.

Surely it was a Prime Minister in difficulty after it took him a full three weeks to do the obvious thing and sack his Home Affairs Minister. So the impression one got from this is that the Valenzia report on the death of Kamara was used as political football in a bid to deflect the heat from government to opposition.

Muscat should have published it a long time ago, perhaps when he was busy telling Europe to wake up and smell the coffee with his bullish threats to push back migrants.

Ironically a few days ago it was Joseph Muscat who accused Busuttil of using the Sheehan case to score political points. Muscat is using Kamara’s case to do the same.

The fact that politicians use such cases to score political points is understandable. Most questionable is the timing of the publication of this report. 

For Muscat should have published it a long time ago, perhaps when he was busy telling Europe to wake up and smell the coffee with his bullish threats to push back migrants.

But let's be clear: in this case there is plenty of material to underline the previous government’s political responsibility for the state of our detention services. Even more shocking than the alleged intervention by the Minister to stop disciplinary procedures (an allegation made by the former Head of Detention Services Lt Brian Gatt which Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici denies), were the conditions in which migrants, apparently left under the watch of frustrated soldiers transferred to detention services as a punishment, and apparently even criminals and sexual predators.

Simon Busuttil cannot ignore this case. If he really means his words on political honesty and integrity, he should be the first to insist on a parliamentary discussion on the report and to present concrete proposals in parliament to either minimise or abolish detention completely.

He may propose the setting up of an ad hoc parliamentary committee to review detention conditions.

Simon Busuttil cannot ignore this case. If he really means his words on political honesty and integrity, he should be the first to insist on a parliamentary discussion on the report

Surely the state of detention services goes beyond the political responsibility of one Minister.  It was a whole system devised and practiced under successive PN governments, which was rotten to the core, as NGOs have been saying for the past decade.

What was wrong and remains wrong is a detention policy supported by both major parties, which brings the worst out of both soldiers and migrants.

As Prime Minister, rather than using the report as a political weapon, Muscat should immediately order a review of the detention system, something that would be easier in view of the drop in arrivals in the past months. 

Hopefully following the reports publication we will at least see some real changes.