The police will take delivery of new DNA equipment in the coming days, Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said today. It will be linked to a European Union database, enabling the police to better fight international, as well as local crime.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Dr Mifsud Bonnici congratulated the police force for its work, particularly their successes in fighting major crime.
The ministry's report for the year shows that last year, the crime rate rose by 11%, mostly as a result of a 14% increase in petty theft by foreigners in the summer.
Cases of domestic violence rose by 21%, but the report says that could be the result of greater awareness of what constituted domestic violence and, hence, a bigger number of reports to the police.
Computer related crimes increased by 66%.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said a Bill providing for moral and civil damages to the victims of accidents would be published in the Government Gazette tomorrow.
See - http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100524/local/compensation-for-disability-to-be-capped-at-600-000.308689
KARIN GRECH
Asked if there had been any new developments in the Karin Grech case, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the case was still open and any shred of new information was investigated. A newspaper said yesterday that the police had been told that medical students at the time had discussed actions in meetings they held in the office of a prominent lawyer.
IMMIGRATION
The minister also referred to immigration and said that Malta had taken note of comments by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that migrants whose boat had capsized were closer to Lampedusa than Malta and it was therefore Italy's responsibility to rescue them.
Asked if he expected further disagreements with Italy on migration, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said he hoped matters such as this were 'a closed case', but one had to see the situation every day.
Speaking at a press conference to mark the third year of the legislature, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the current situation was different from the normal migratory flow. The people who had arrived as migrants were escaping from a civil war, hence the greater need for EU solidarity and assistance. This distinction, he said, also needed to be made when people discussed the push back policy which Italy had had with Libya. He pointed out that the agreement was reached when Libya was a stable country.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici insisted that the government was safeguarding Malta's interests, as well as international law and people's lives. Europe, he said, had heeded Malta's calls for help and things 'have started moving' even if the emergency, obligatory burden sharing mechanism had not been activated yet.
Germany, he said, had sent officials to Malta ahead of the country taking some 100 migrants