Cabinet blindsided by budget measures against non-EU workers

Cabinet members were unaware of the punitive budget measures targeting non-EU nationals, which have been slammed by leftist voices close to the Labour Party.  

Ministers told MaltaToday they were not informed of the controversial measures affecting third country nationals and only learnt about them during the budget speech. The ministers were granted anonymity to be able to speak frankly about confidential matters. 

“The measures came as a surprise, leaving many of us uncomfortable because they targeted a vulnerable section of the working class,” one minister said. 

But the measures also irked several Labour functionaries, according to sources within the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I was dumbfounded by the irony that a supposedly socialist party was proposing heavy financial burdens on working class people,” one party official said. 

As a result of the budget measures, third country nationals (TCNs), who do not have long-term residency will no longer benefit from free public transport and childcare. Non-EU workers with driving licences will be made to pay a new €83 monthly fee unless they work as drivers. 

The measures also introduce higher application and renewal fees, as well as a €400 “infrastructure contribution” that must be paid by new applicants and TCNs who are already in Malta and want to renew their residence. 

The measures would collectively represent a saving of €46 million, Clyde Caruana told parliament. The finance minister later explained the measures would start to address overpopulation. 

The measures received wide applause from a public that has consistently identified overpopulation as a concern but a number of Labour-leaning commentators expressed disgust at the party’s “dehumanising” and “us-and-them” narrative. 

A dehumanising narrative 

Lawyer Andrew Sciberras, the son of the late Labour MP and judge Philip Sciberras, said the measures reinforce the mentality that foreign workers are “products”. He described the narrative surrounding TCNs as “dehumanising”. 

Sciberras clarified that it would be wrong to forget the country’s strides on civil liberties, a cause championed by the Labour governments of the past 13 years. 

“But from the economic aspect, the party is Labourite in name only, and that hurts me because I’m a Labourite,” Sciberras said. He appealed to the Labour Party not to forget its working class roots, noting that his concerns are shared by traditionally Labour-leaning entities such as the General Workers’ Union (GWU). 

GWU’s Secretary General, Kevin Camilleri had similarly described the measures as “purely populist”, adding that “as a socialist and leftist union, I can never agree with the measures against TCNs”. 

Speaking about the economic motives underpinning the measures, Andrew Sciberras noted that if the idea behind them was to reduce Malta’s overpopulation, financial burdens could have been placed on employers relying on a constant flow of new foreign workers, not the workers themselves. 

From a legal standpoint, Sciberras questioned whether the measures are in line with EU law, noting that the policy “is not only morally reprehensible; it may well be unlawful too”. 

Attacking the new lower class 

Labour-leaning commentator and former trade unionist Jeremy Camilleri was even less diplomatic in his critique of the measures: “They are totally anti-socialist and anti-left.” 

“These workers aren’t treated as human beings but as commodities,” he said. 

Camilleri noted that despite government’s talk of addressing the volume-centric economic model, the components of Malta’s economy haven’t changed. 

He added that if government wanted to reduce the number of new TCNs, it should have made it much more expensive for employers to recruit new workers from abroad. 

“Instead, we’ve loaded more burdens on the workers that are already here. We created a new lower class and now we’re attacking it,” he stressed. 

Camilleri told this newspaper he wishes the PL never uses the word “socialist” again when speaking to him before elections, quoting from the party’s anthem to show the irony of what the PL has become. 

“The anthem says, ‘We empathise with the hungry and poor, our tears flow for the distressed.’ It can’t be more leftist than that. The Labour Party should remember what it is and why it was created,” he said. 

An us-and-them narrative 

Former Nisa Laburisti president Jennifer Tabone told MaltaToday that the narrative surrounding the measures worries her much more than the measures themselves. 

Tabone flagged the barrage of anti-foreigner and racist rhetoric that followed the budget measures, noting, for instance, that many are misusing Dom Mintoff’s “Malta first and foremost,” motto to fit their xenophobic views. 

“I’m afraid of the us-and-them narrative more than anything. I’m afraid of the far-right narrative because I know what happened in other countries,” she said. 

In a post on Facebook following her comment to MaltaToday, Tabone said she was fed up with “those who spread racial hatred under the guise of patriotism.” 

She insisted that non-EU workers come to Malta because the country needs them, clarifying that they too contribute to the economy through taxes. “And then we have the cheek to treat them as second-class citizens.” 

Where is the mia colpa? 

Former Environment and Resources Authority CEO and self-confessed socialist Ruben Abela pointed MaltaToday towards his public Facebook post when asked for comment. 

Abela noted the ongoing “uncontrollable xenophobia instigated by those who are supposed to see that this behaviour is controlled”. 

He insisted that people should think and ponder before taking to social media.  

“There are other, more decent ways of controlling overpopulation. The first step is to look into a mirror and say ‘mia colpa’,” Abela wrote, with reference to the rapid economic growth model of the past decade.