Opposition reserves judgment until downward trend is sustained

Home Affairs spokesman Tonio Borg told Parliament yesterday that the crime rate had dropped by 11 per cent so far this year.

Opposition home affairs spokesman Gavin Gulia said, however, that crime had risen every year since 1999 and the opposition would therefore reserve judgment until the downward trend was sustained.

The remarks were made when the House debated the financial estimates of the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs in Committee of Supply.

Dr Gulia, who opened the debate, said that since 1999 the crime rate had grown constantly except for 2001. Last year crime was up 24 per cent over the year before. This year crime had declined, with fewer thefts up to September. But the government would only be seen to be beating crime when an annual decline in crime was sustained.

The minister in the past used to argue that the crime rate had increased because of an increase in petty thefts. This year, however, the number of hold-ups and violent thefts had increased.

Dr Gulia said the government's policies vis-à-vis the police should not be judged solely by the funds allocated for the corps. The fact was that the corps was demoralised and many policemen wanted to leave as soon as possible. Policemen were seeing their overtime decline and payment for extra work was taking many months to be paid.

A recent, belated, reform of shifts meant policemen were working for longer without a proportionate increase in earnings. Tax savings by police constables announced in the budget had more than evaporated.

Dr Gulia criticised the way promotions for inspectors were made, saying some officials had been passed over several times. This too did contribute towards motivation in the corps.

What had become of plans for an insurance policy for policemen?

The opposition MP observed that while the capital vote for the police was unchanged from last year, that for the prisons had been slashed by Lm50,000. It appeared that the drugs problem at the prisons had worsened over the past few years and needed to be tackled.

While progress had been made in the areas of probation and community services, none was evident in the area of education for prison inmates, he said. Turning to illegal immigration, Dr Gulia said the government and the opposition agreed on the detention policy. It was not Malta's pleasure to detain immigrants, but God forbid that this policy was changed, all the more when there was an element of foot dragging by the EU on Malta's immediate needs to tackle illegal immigration.

True, the government had managed to attract some EU funds to Malta for illegal immigration. But funding was not the solution. It only meant that the EU was telling Malta to tackle this problem on its own whereas this should be seen as a common problem of all member states. Solidarity and burden sharing still had a long way to go. It was unacceptable that the EU told Malta to hurry things up with regard to the reception and integration of migrants but then no real progress was made on other aspects of the problem, such as burden sharing and repatriation. There had to be one package of measures. The opposition would continue to back the government's efforts to ease this problem for Malta, Dr Gulia said.

Replying, Dr Borg said illegal immigration was one of the biggest challenges which his ministry faced. The number of arrivals so far this year was higher than the whole of last year, with 642 arriving in June alone, a record for one month. There were currently 1,400 immigrants at the immigration centre.

A new detention centre has been built at Safi, the detention service has been strengthened, 50 new wardens have been engaged and another call for applications had been issued.

Through the government's work, this issue was constantly on the agenda of EU meetings. It was also through Malta's insistence that the EU was making funding available for illegal immigration. Malta as received Lm230,000 in emergency funds for services in detention centres and Lm340,000 in assistance to the AFM. A further Lm290,000 had been assigned to Malta has part of a project with Italy and the International Immigration Organisation.

He, however, agreed with Dr Gulia that this was not enough and there should be burden sharing. Immigrants who were not sent back should be shared among all the EU countries. Unfortunately, there was no enthusiasm to this idea in the EU, notably from countries such as France. He had no right to force other countries to take some of Malta's immigrants. However, Malta believed its position was justified and would continue to insist on burden sharing at every forum.

Malta was also working closely with Frontex on sea patrols. It was difficult to gauge at this stage whether the patrols were a success, but no migrants came to Malta while the patrols were held, although this could not be attributed just to the patrols.

Dr Borg said the government was granting protection to the migrants who deserved it, but even Australia, which was so much bigger than Malta, followed a detention policy. Why should Malta - the smallest country in the EU, not follow such a policy? And where in Europe did anyone have an approval rate of applications by immigrants of 53 per cent as was the case in Malta?

This year, humanitarian status was granted to 384 immigrants and refugee status to 17.

Dr Borg said that this year over 700 immigrants were repatriated. The Refugee Commissioner had decided 881 cases by October and only those migrants who came since June remained to be interviewed.

Reacting to Dr Gulia's remarks on the conditions of work of policemen, Dr Borg said the police always did well under Nationalist administrations. Contrary to what Dr Gulia had implied, there was no exodus from the police. Only 32 had left this year, compared to 132 in the 22 months of Labour government. Dr Gulia year after year claimed morale was low, yet recently 300 applied for 100 vacancies in the force.

Dr Borg observed that a record Lm16.5 million were being allocated to the police next year, Lm4 million more than in 1998. Lm14.8 million were being voted just for salaries, Lm3 million more than in 1998. A police constable had seen his basic salary increase from Lm3,900 to Lm5,400 - a 38 per cent rise since 1998. Lm560,000 was given in overtime last year, along with Lm550,000 for extra duties and Lm1.9 million in allowances. Per capita this meant that beside their basic salary policemen took home an additional Lm1,666.

The salary of police sergeants had increased by 40 per cent and that of inspectors by 43 per cent. Dr Borg observed that it had taken Dr Gulia quite some time to acknowledge that the crime rate was falling. Of course, Dr Borg said, he had to be careful because one could not have a policeman at every corner.

Still, a special effort had been made over the past year to involve communities in crime prevention and an inspector was assigned for each locality. The number of mobile vehicles was doubled and policemen on the beat were given better equipment.

There had been significant success in the fight against drugs with, among others, 44 kilos of cannabis, four kilos of cocaine and 15,000 ecstasy pills being seized. There were 440 arrests and 99 drug trafficking arraignments.

Dr Borg said he was surprised at the criticism of the new police shift system because reaction had been generally positive and the police were getting an additional 30 days off each year.

The minister denied opposition allegations on the way promotions for inspectors were made.

He also made reference to criticism of the police force at the beginning of the year after a girl, Jeanette Mifsud, fell from a bastion opposite the Mediterranean Conference Centre on New Year's Day, saying the inquiring magistrate had established that the permit for the party was regular and neither the police nor the organisers or the conference centre were responsible for the girl's death.

The inquiry was conducted by Magistrate Lawrence Quintano who concluded that the tragedy had happened because of an unfortunate accident and not negligence.

Touching on other aspects of his ministry, Dr Borg said that at Corradino Correctional Facility a block to be used for family extended visits had been completed.

He said that the opposition was still without a policy on justice.

In the summer of 2004 he had written to the opposition for its views on raising the retirement age of judges to 65. He did so again last January, when the entrenchment of the Office of the Ombudsman in the Constitution was also proposed. But no reaction was forthcoming. Reacting to a comment by Anglu Farrugia (MLP) Dr Borg said funding for the Attorney General's Office had been increased, not reduced.

Speaking on government properties, Dr Borg said the Joint Office was expected this year to exceed its projected revenue by Lm1.4 million while revenue from the sale of government property by the Lands Department would reach Lm34 million, Lm12 million more than budgeted. Lm2 million were paid in compensation for expropriated land this year and it was planned that bonds for a value of Lm20 million would be issued to owners of expropriated land next year. They would be guaranteed by government property which would be transferred to a financial institution. The allocation of these bonds would be voluntary.

Dr Borg also spoke on how the direct and indirect financial allocation to local councils was increasing. Over the past year six councils benefitted from the transfer of properties from the central government. Several councils also tapped into EU funds and the opposition, which was so strongly against EU membership, was now saying the EU was a major source of assistance to the councils.

Concluding he referred to the Civil Protection Department, saying its members had made 5,600 interventions in the first 10 months of the year. Its voluntary section had also been strengthened.