Muscat pledges more migrant deportations, minimum wage increase

Presenting himself as a “social revolutionist” and an “anti-establishment” leader, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat pledged to deport more failed asylum seekers to African countries and to permanently increase the minimum wage. 

Addressing a political activity in San Gwann, Muscat defended the police’s recent decision to detain a group of failed asylum seekers at the Safi detention centre in preparation of their deportation to Mali.

“The EU has signed agreements with third countries who are willing to accept their nationals who don’t qualify for asylum, and this is the first group of people that Malta will be deporting back to their country. Some people feel sorry for them because they have been in Malta for a long time, but we must send a sign that Malta is ready to deport anyone who is caught illegally.”

He insisted that the migrants will only be deported if their countries are origin are safe and that their human rights will be safeguarded by an EU “system”.

Yet the warning marks a decisive shift in tone on immigration from a man who had admitted in March last year that an earlier threat to push back irregular migrants had been a mistake.

That same month, Muscat delivered a powerful speech on the eve of Freedom Day, in which he called on the Maltese to change their attitudes towards migrants and warned that failure to integrate migrant workers could push them towards extremism.

“We are partially at fault here. We have created a system that isolates people and minorities in ghettoes. This is absolute hypocrisy. We are preaching inclusion but leaving minorities feeling as though they are still foreigners in their own country.” 

The Prime Minister’s comments today were severely rebuked by Partit Demokratiku leader and independent MP Marlene Farrugia, who accused him of hypocrisy.

“People who fled from persecution, terror and poverty, who have ended up victims of human trafficking, and who don’t have the contacts or money to buy a visa or citizenship will be kicked out,” she said in a Facebook post. “Meanwhile, more and more criminals and human traffickers are coming to Malta, because through their atrocities, they now have enough money to afford a visa or citizenship.

“The true establishment are those who are aware of all this, but choose to make an example out of the small fish while letting the big fish swim free.”

In his speech, Muscat also said that the law must change in both text and spirit to ensure that workers are treated equally, irrespective of their nationality.

“Many people believe that the laws are more lax for foreign workers than for Maltese ones, and that foreign workers are undermining their jobs. There are at least 30,000 foreign workers in Malta right now, and if it wasn’t for them the economy wouldn’t have grown as it had. I want Malta to be a cosmopolitan economy, but it must not be less expensive for an employer to hire a foreign worker instead of a Maltese one.”

Muscat also gave his clearest sign yet that he will increase the minimum wage on a permanent level, stating that the government will step in if trade unions and employers’ associations fail to reach an agreement.

“Employers and trade unions must sit down and reach an agreement on how the minimum wage should be increased. Yet if they don’t reach an agreement, the government will step in to increase the minimum wage permanently.”

He brushed off PN leader Simon Busuttil’s recent support for a proposal to increase the minimum wage that had been floated by a group of activists, accusing him of “shooting from the hip”.

“He criticised us for not consulting with people when we imposed a €1 excise tax on perfumes, but yet is shooting from the hip over something so important.”

‘I am not the establishment because I am in favour of change’

Muscat repeatedly referred to himself as an anti-establishment, a mantra he first adopted following last June’s Brexit referendum and which he started applying more fiercely in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as US President.

“The government has performed several silent revolutions over the past three years,” he said, citing the LNG power station project, the slashing of hospital waiting lists and out-of-stock medicines, and the privatisation of the St Luke’s, Gozo, and Karin Grech hospitals.

“The reason I am not part of the establishment is because I am in favour of change, unlike the PN which wants things to remain the same,” Muscat argued. “We [Labour] are the movement of change in Malta, and we constantly find ourselves up against [the PN], who don’t want us to make deals with the private sector, who don’t want energy production to shift from heavy fuel oil to gas, and who don’t want us to make deals with non-European countries.”

‘Social revolution in employment laws’

Muscat also hailed proposed changes to the Employment and Industrial Act as “a social revolution that will render employment laws more relevant to the modern age”.

In particular, he said that the laws will be “feminised”, so that they refer primarily to female, instead of male, workers.

“The current law assumes that workers are male, yet we must change the mentality, text and spirit of the law into one that assumes all workers are female. If female workers are treated well, then by extension all workers will be treated well.”

Other proposed changes will allow parents to take “special leave” from work when their children are sick, and grant more leave to cancer patients undergoing treatment.