After Hamrun brawl, minister goes to town with ‘perp walk’ photos on Facebook

A brawl between rival Syrian communities on the Hamrun High Street at Fra Diegu Square in August, was shot on mobile phone video that went viral in what became yet another conspicuous incident on migration-related unrest.

Though rare for its intensity, during which outnumbered police officers were unable to keep the brawlers apart, two men – 35-year-old construction worker Abdullah Ahmed, of Marsa and Abdullah Sheikh Ahmad, 30 from Mosta – were charged with the unrest.

Despite a summer of relatively low number of boat arrivals, this was not the first time that such incidents provoked a populist backlash of anti-immigrant outrage.

The PN’s home affairs spokesperson Joe Giglio, and Gozitan MP Alex Borg, were among the first to take to social media calling for immediate deportations for foreigners charged with breaking the law.

For the popular Giglio, it was a popular clarion call even though the learned lawyer knows Maltese laws do not permit deportations that breach international rules that protect people from being returned to a country where their life could be in danger. Even the Immigration Act specifies which cases foreigners can be returned to their country of origin.

The government was quick to take the cue from the popular outrage, with home affairs minister Byron Camilleri ordering immigration raids that drastically increased in frequency, promoted by Camilleri personally with photos of police raids which he said were centred around “prevention, returns and relocations.”

The raids are believed to have targeted visa overstayers, that is, asylum seekers who obtained international protection in another EU country, such as Italy, then crossed over to Malta. According to the EU’s Dublin Regulation, they are not entitled to work in Schengen countries like Malta but can stay for no more than three months. Refugees and asylum seekers with protection from the Maltese government cannot be returned to their country of origin while still under protection.

An analysis of Camilleri’s personal social media profile shows that between September and October, the minister posted no less than six social media posts showing migrants in handcuffs being escorted by the police, captioned with ambiguous statements such as “authorities are attacking irregular migration”.

A 2 October post caption ended with the sentence: “The process for them to no longer stay in the country was started immediately.”

A 30 September post shows migrants, dressed by immigration authorities in matching bright green shirts, headed for the departures gate at the airport. They formed part of a group of 208 individuals found living irregularly in Malta. In the photo’s caption, the minister said that the repatriation of these migrants was part of the government’s strategy “in making the countries localities safer”.

The post was slammed by Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami in parliament earlier this week, who said the home affairs minister’s string of Facebook posts were a knee-jerk reaction to criticism levelled against government on migration.

He compared the Facebook post uploaded by Camilleri of migrants boarding a plane, to a scene “right out of Guantanamo Bay” – a reference to the bright orange prison uniforms used in the US prison compound. “It’s good to crackdown on illegalities, but to post it on Facebook? To get a populist reaction? It’s in bad taste,” he said.

Interestingly, the minister corralled the State’s crackdown on these overstayers by posting the majority of the photos on his personal profile, rather than the ministry Facebook page.

The posts were criticised by Aditus Foundation, who said the photos were “whipping up a xenophobic frenzy”.

“Handbook on how to whip up xenophobic frenzy: carry out mass raids in the middle of a very rainy dark night, with photographers on the ready. Include photos of armed police, handcuffed men and sniffer dogs. Publish said photos with phrases on irregular migration, drugs and organised crime mentioned in one mouthful. Publish another set of photos of police dismantling illegal structures by a bar frequented by migrants whilst thanking the cleansing department,” the human rights NGO said.

“Yes, those that should be returned, must be returned with due regard to their rights and dignity. Anything above and beyond is vile propaganda and serves no purpose other than the Minister’s own.”