The police in the first half of this year arraigned almost twice as many people as the whole of last year for prostitution-related offences, Parliamentary Secretary Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici told parliament yesterday.

And the government is considering introducing stiffer penalties for such crimes, particularly the trafficking of persons for purposes of prostitution, he said in an adjournment speech.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici was replying to remarks by Labour MP Adrian Vassallo who earlier this week complained that the police had had enough resources to mount a round-the-clock guard on a protected bird, but then complained of not having enough personnel for effective action against loitering in the streets of Gzira.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the Labour MP was unfair in his remarks and had tried to belittle the police force. In the first half of this year the police arraigned 121 people for loitering and soliciting, almost double the total for all of last year.

Two people were accused of living off prostitution and 11 were arraigned in connection with trafficking of people for prostitution. The arraignments involved people from all over Malta and Gozo, but a substantial number were from the Gzira.

The arraignments followed some 700 investigations, which was no mean feat, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

Those arraignments, he said, were possible only because a large number of policemen were deployed to rid the streets of such abuses, as far as was possible.

But it needed to be remembered that this problem was not concentrated only in Gzira. It was true that Gzira police station was not open at all hours, but the area headquarters at Msida was open round the clock and had an inspector and a good complement of policemen.

Action was also taken by the members of the police mobile squad and the vice squad.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici pointed out that before arraigning anybody, the police had to ensure that they had enough evidence to mount a proper prosecution. The accused's mode of dress was not enough to achieve a conviction.

The parliamentary secretary said he would perhaps have agreed with Dr Vassallo had he called for tougher punishment for such crimes.

Indeed, the government was considering stiffer penalties, such as confiscation of premises or temporary closure of establishments where such crime took place, particularly where there was trafficking of persons for purposes of prostitution.

Stamping out these practices was not easy. Prostitution was, after all, known as the oldest profession, and it was not easy to change human nature, but the government also wanted to tackle the root causes of prostitution and make the people more aware of the social and even health consequences which could result.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the police did well to guard the spoonbill which flew to Salina a few weeks ago. The fate of other spoonbills which arrived in Malta some time ago was well known, even though they were listed as protected birds.

It was also good that the police had held a parade to mark the anniversary of the corps, since such activities promoted the esprit des corps in the force.