Patrick Cooke
‘Libya’s like Somalia’
Somali asylum seekers who fled Libya by boat and were brought to Malta last weekend tell Patrick Cooke that Africans still risk beatings and even death in post-Gaddafi Libya.
Zakaria and a fellow Somali were exhausted after carrying out back-breaking manual labour for a Libyan man who had picked them up in ‘Krimea’, an area of Tripoli where the city’s underclass of sub-Saharan Africans congregate in the hope of finding work.
“When we finished, he told us ‘you are a friend of Gaddafi so I will not pay you, you killed our brothers’. Then he beat us with sticks and threatened us with a gun,” Zakaria tells The Sunday Times.
“Africans are being beaten and killed in Libya and no one there cares,” he adds to nods from his companions inside Lyster Detention Centre, where the 68 Somali asylum seekers rescued at sea last weekend are being housed.
A crowd gathers to share or listen to stories of life in post-revolution Libya for dark-skinned Africans, which are articulated into English by Zakaria and another asylum seeker, Abdul Karim.
‘Murtazaka’ – meaning ‘mercenary’ in Arabic – is a word they all know too well.
“Even now they all call us murtazaka. We cannot say anything because we have nothing and all Libyan men have guns. They say we are the brothers of Gaddafi,” says Abdul Karim.
Libya’s large population of sub-Saharan migrants came under suspicion from the beginning of the Libyan revolution last February, when it was widely reported that Muammar Gaddafi was using dark-skinned mercenaries to brutally suppress protests against his regime.
As the tide gradually swung in favour of the revolutionaries, reports emerged from human rights groups and the media of the killing and arbitrary detention of thousands of dark-skinned Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans accused of supporting Gaddafi, often with no corroborating evidence beyond their skin colour. “Many Somalis were killed and even now they are killing Somalis. We had to stay in our homes as much as possible,” says Zakaria.
Others tell stories of how men came to their homes and demanded money and mobile phones. One man says the most common word he heard directed at him in Libya was a vulgar Arabic word also used in Maltese.
The UNHCR were told similar stories by the new arrivals.
“They told of widespread looting and breaking into houses where sub-Saharan nationals are residing. Men are robbed and beaten; women have been raped – also in recent months. They explained that smugglers provided them with the only possible way out,” a UNHCR spokesman said.
Zakaria believes the main problem is the omnipresence of guns.
“At the moment all Libyans have guns, it is becoming like Somalia – no security and no stability. They have to collect the guns,” he says.
Efforts to unite the former militias under a single military command have so far failed and sporadic fighting between rival factions has continued. Libya’s interim leader warned this month the country risked sliding into civil war if militias were not disarmed.
Alarmingly, both Abdul Karim and Zakaria claim that they paid armed Libyan militiamen $400 each to facilitate their crossing of the Mediterranean.
The Sunday Times asked for clarification: did they pay the money to revolutionaries? “Of course, they were militia from the revolution. All of them are militia now, and there is much corruption,” says Abdul Karim.
“Many Libyan men wear uniforms now like that one (he points at a soldier in the room), even children wear them,” he adds.
Sub-Saharan Africans made similar claims in an article published by AFP on December 6. After their Europe-bound boat was intercepted by Libyan forces following its departure from Libya, they accused the former rebels of “organising this set-up”.
Last Thursday, AFP reported the Libyan Interior Ministry’s claim that 260 irregular migrants had been intercepted as they tried to enter Libya with three armed Libyans.
But Malta’s new arrivals prefer to look to the future.
“Our only hope is to live a safe life,” says Zakaria. “At least here we feel safe.”
66 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
Joe Xuereb
Jan 23rd, 22:07
Yes Victor Bonello. I too had interests in Libya, and still do, and will continue as long as I live. My interest is called Leptis Magna, Sabratha, and others too numerous to mention or even remember. I feared for them. But of course there are interests.....and there are interests. If you see what I mean.
Maybe you are lucky (as in risk-taker) Mr. Bonello. Maybe you saw and touched what I dream about - I doubt it by the sounds of it - when you flew over any number of times to safeguard your interests come what may. I was too chicken to risk setting foot on that country. But then as we say, omm il-ġifa qatt ma tagħli.
This time round I will not link any websites. Some ignorant hothead who has never heard, never mind seen, these wonders will get it into his thick head and sabotage what has survived for thousands of years. A similar mindset caused the damage to our own temples not so very long ago. Some people's interests, I ask you!
Thanks for responding by the way. I like people who make the effort to communicate. They always find the time however busy they may be.
Joe Xuereb
Jan 23rd, 13:38
@John Azzopardi(13:15). Quote: 'Maybe, France and Germany can take them As well as Sweden'. John, and whose problem would this solve?
@Victor Vella(11:59). Quote: '.....And Malta is like Somalia'. Victor, if this state of affairs continues not only Malta will be like Somalia but the whole of Europe. And that would include even Sweden.
Only this week I went to a lecture about the lack of freedom of women in certain Muslim countries. The lecture was cancelled as there had been threats. So now a British University is told to shut up. By these people who are telling me, or depriving me, of free speech in my own country. Yes, in UK I am an immigrant too but please - and this has happened on these pages - do not compare me, a citizen of the Commonwealth, to some god forsaken illegal immigrant from only god knows where.
@Joseph Borg(14:28). The West cannot go and temporarily settle in Libya to sort if out. They will be accused of vested interests. And then of course one gets people like Alexander Azzopardi(11:23), an apologist for Kaddafi. And the comment that takes the Oscar is Kenneth Galea's(10:18) who reckons Iraq was better under Saddam as he kept insurgence under the lid - another name for brutal oppression. And of course, the Iraqi people were either unaware of atrocities - Halabja, the destruction of the settlements of an ancient culture of the Marsh Arabs - or if they were, they were made to collude with their tribal chieftain, or else(I remember yeas, years ago I spoke to an educated Iraqi friend from Basra, about the Marsh Arabs. All he had to say was that they were 'dirty' because they lived on reed platforms and navigated on reed boats. They were dirty(?) so annihilating their culture and displacing them was not a problem. Have a look at this Kenneth, and weep a little.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Arabs
and http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Madan.aspx Noteworthy in Section 3 about language, the word khanzir(pig) is mentioned. So far away and yet we share at least this word with them, the Marsh Arabs.
So much for your claim that the Iraqis were happier under Saddam because they could do their shopping without fear of suicide bombings. True in a way but that is only localised peace oblivious(?) of what was going on elsewhere.
@Victor Bonello(11:18) suggests that Libya should have been left well alone and Gaddafi could have been won over by diplomacy. Mr. Bonello, would you, by any chance, have vested interests in Libya as it was?
To the oft-repeated question, why do they keep coming to Libya if it is so bad? I image they keep coming because Libya is the hub of the people-trafficking industry don't you see?
victor bonello
Jan 23rd, 14:32
@ Joe Xureb.. yes like many Maltese I had " huge" interests in Libya under Gaddafi..
Joe Xuereb
Jan 23rd, 13:31
@John Azzopardi(13:15). Quote: 'Maybe, France and Germany can take them As well as Sweden'. John, and whose problem would this solve?
@Victor Vella(11:59). Quote: '.....And Malta is like Somalia'. Victor, if this state of affairs continues not only Malta will be like Somalia but the whole of Europe. And that would include even Sweden.
Only this week I went to a lecture about the lack of freedom of women in certain Muslim countries. The lecture was cancelled as there had been threats. So now a British University is told to shut up. By these people who are telling me, or depriving me, of free speech in my own country. Yes, in UK I am an immigrant too but please - and this has happened on these pages - do not compare me, a citizen of the Commonwealth, to some god forsaken illegal immigrant from only god knows where.
@Joseph Borg(14:28). The West cannot go and temporarily settle in Libya to sort if out. They will be accused of vested interests. And then of course one gets people like Alexander Azzopardi(11:23), an apologist for Kaddafi. And the comment that takes the Oscar is Kenneth Galea's(10:18) who reckons Iraq was better under Saddam as he kept insurgence under the lid - another name for brutal oppression. And of course, the Iraqi people were either unaware of atrocities - Halabja, the destruction of the settlements of an ancient culture of the Marsh Arabs - or if they were, they were made to collude with their tribal chieftain, or else(I remember yeas, years ago I spoke to an educated Iraqi friend from Basra, about the Marsh Arabs. All he had to say was that they were 'dirty' because they lived on reed platforms and navigated on reed boats. They were dirty(?) so annihilating their culture and displacing them was not a problem. Have a look at this Kenneth, and weep a little.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Arabs
and http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Madan.aspx Noteworthy in Section 3 about language, the word khanzir(pig) is mentioned. So far away and yet we share at least this word with them, the Marsh Arabs.
So much for your claim that the Iraqis were happier under Saddam because they could do their shopping without fear of suicide bombings. True in a way but that is only localised peace oblivious(?) to what was going on elsewhere.
@Victor Bonello(11:18) suggests that Libya should have been left well alone and Gaddafi could have been won over by diplomacy. Mr. Bonello, would you, by any chance, have vested interests in Libya as it was?
To the oft repeated question, why do they keep coming to Libya if it is so bad? I image they keep coming because Libya is the hub of the people-trafficking industry don't you see?
Joseph Sammut
Jan 23rd, 12:43
If some or most of these law breakers were mercinaries in Libya, can you imagine what they would do to our peaceful community? Do we really know what we are doing?
victor bonello
Jan 23rd, 11:18
I hope NATO and our Prime Minster Gonzi, are happy about this.
Over 6 months when the fighting escalated I was wirting against the intrusion of Western forces, I was highlighting that all that was going to happen was the destruction of Libya as a state.
Time has proved me right! Libya will never be anywhere near where it was, a financially strong state.
Once again I repeat Gaddafi was no sweet Honey bear, but if the Western world wanted o help the Libyan people and not take over the oil supplies, diplomacy could have been used!
We have managed to ruin a country and the future of a people, I do not see what prasies our Goverment and the rest that took part in this genocide expec!!!
angelo cilia
Jan 23rd, 12:20
King Juan Carlos the Protector of the Holy Sites of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem wanted the destruction of Colonel Mummar Qaddafi thus aiding the theft of Libyan water, food crisis of North Africa and Middle East along with the theft of oil and the stopping of a gold backed Dinar and to destroy the independent Libyan central bank, not to mention the Desertec project to use the Sahara to supply Europes energy needs. The Union for the Mediterranean is backed by Juan Carlos and was very much complicit in toppling Qaddafi.
Joseph Ellul
Jan 23rd, 08:01
Min jidhol bejn il-basla u qoxritha, jibqa b'rihitha.
Emma Xerri
Jan 22nd, 23:11
If you bring enough Somalians, every country WILL be like Somalia.
You can take people out of a country, but they take their culture with them wherever they go. Now, if we were to transplant Germans to Somalia, and vice-versa, Germany will become like Somalia and Somalia will become like Germany. What is so hard to understand about that.
N Mifsud
Jan 23rd, 12:06
Fine words Emma. I don't 'mind' immigrants coz I imagine what they must pass through to leave their own homes but what I HATE is that some of them pretend that you have their own views instead of adapting to the culture of the hospitalising country...
kelly scicluna
Jan 22nd, 22:35
no offence but speaking my mind the title to this article shouldnt read
LIBYA'S LIKE SOMALIA
but should read
"MALTA WILL BECOME LIKE SOMALIA IF WE DONT STOP THIS "
kelly scicluna
Jan 22nd, 22:22
oooo poor malta im in uk and wished i could get on a boat come to malta have a roof over my head and food ,sure i feel for these people but why if the got rescued so to speek by maltese and itailian cargo why didnt italy take them , all i say is... it states 68 somalis were rescued you just wait until a call gets out to libya to their other family members there all be over in the following months trust me they all seem to be men you think for one minute they anit told there wifes " i see if the coast is clear and u lot follow x "same as east london all the britsh people are moving out and as a population of more multiculture then british.... if you lot dont stop it now my god your children grandchildren dont stand a chance x
carlos ellul
Jan 22nd, 21:49
Libya is the green eyed monster that immigrants fear to death and yet....they still flock in millions there despite its bad reputation. A quick check over the map will confirm that Saudi Arabia is closer to Somalia then Libya and Europe are and yet immigrants prefer to go to 'blood thirsty' Libya to then travel to little Catholic Malta rather then go to oil rich and Muslim friendly Saudi.
BTW you can't really blame Libyans for not liking their African 'brothers' especially considered that so many of them had defended the Gaddafi's regime, raping and killing civilians in the process. I hope that some good screening is being made at their arrival since we don't really need rapists and mercenaries roaming into Malta under the excuse of 'illegal immigrants'. The Church/the big brothers in the North can of course complain but there again these nation can also lead by example and take them off our/Libyan's hands.
Charles Cremona
Jan 22nd, 19:11
Like any other Arab nation Lbyans cannot handle democracy as we know it, theyr repect firm leaders / dictators or they fall apart and start killing each other. Look at Iraq after Sadam the same will happen in Libya.
John Azzopoardi
Jan 22nd, 18:48
Sorry people. The Libyan and Somali problem is not our problem and we shouldn't make it our problem either. Let them work their problems out with assistance from those big powers like the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy and the rest of the Arab world. If some maltese NGOs think they can resolve this problem, they are only dreaming. And I truly mean DREAMING. The 1% of those maltese who would take one and all who come to our island needs a reality check.
laurent caruana
Jan 22nd, 18:44
To all the people with racist beliefs.....give us a break!
Alfred Falzon
Jan 22nd, 18:35
These Somalis who fled Libya are simply exaggerating!
There is another more valid reason behind their tell-tale!
Read all about foreign mercenaries in the pay of Kadhafi's ruthless regime on the web site entitled "Gaddafi's mercenaries" on Google Search and you will understand better the motive of their escape!
Alfred A. Falzon
Mr Charles.C. Brown
Jan 22nd, 23:29
Hello sailor! Still on about gaddaffi i see. Its those boatloads that your ol pal Jallil is sendin to Malta youve got to watch out for now. Why dont you start a whipround amoung your fellow malts and have another mosque built cos very soon one will not be enough , i hear Jallil and his cliqe are all devoute muslems !
Alfred Falzon
Jan 23rd, 10:59
@ Charles C. Brown\
Still hopeful that Libya will once more revert to defunct butcher Kadhafi's heir-in-waiting?
Well, well, as far as I know Khadafi used to boast that he was a devout Muslim with, of course, the finest wines, alcohol and spirits well stocked in his sumptuous villas and palaces!
Pity he did not share them with his sub-Saharan mercenaries (many of them from Somalia and Chad) before his people got rid of his corrupt regime!
Alfred A. Falzon
Mr Charles.C. Brown
Jan 23rd, 20:07
By the way happy new year ! oh how i love to see Ayisha on the libyan throne!
Alfred Falzon
Jan 23rd, 21:23
@ Charles C. Brown
Even though the Mayan calendar may foresee otherwise, may we both share more digs at each other for the rest of the year!
Dialogue is healthy and keeps purging our minds of confusion!
So thumbs up, Charles, even if you have now thrown all your weight behind a Monarchy!
All the very best!
Alfred A. Falzon
mark borg
Jan 22nd, 18:27
Libya like new Somalia...and another uprising within GONZIPN :)
Gonzi hu AKBARRRRRRRRRR :)
Joe Grech
Jan 22nd, 18:18
I just cannot understand WHY these sub-saharan people go to Libya if they know that (as they say) they are treated badly there. Not all sub-saharan countries have civil wars but these people abandon their own lands and families just the same. Most are not really asylum seekers - they just want to improve their lot economically. Nothing wrong in that - as long as they do not come here to live off other people who are not really well off themselves.
This article does not convince.
Joseph Borg
Jan 22nd, 16:32
@Martin Vella
If you beleive that the libyans know how to run their country after being suppressed and left ignorant
for 42 years under a tyranny then sorry to say , you are dreaming
M. Attard
Jan 22nd, 18:56
it is the biggest shame, that the all brainy americans and europeans have no idea of how certain african people behave. Probably the biggest failures are actually the europeans. Libya is so close to us and yet we dont know how Libyans are MADE. I bet that the situation was better off under Ghaddafi then it is nowadays and will be so for a very very long time. At least before they had some kind of leadership but now all are astray and do abolished acts that they couldn't have done under the rule of previous leadership.
angelo cilia
Jan 22nd, 22:48
And what have these people ever built or created even beyond 42 years ago or even before 1911?
Emma Xerri
Jan 22nd, 22:55
@M Attard
The brainy Americans and Europeans know very well how certain African people behave. Do not be so naive as to think that with all the intelligence networks, they were surprised with the results. Destablized countries works out better if it is their resources one is after. The sanctimonious rhetoric about freedom and democracy is just a lot of bull designed to fool good-hearted but gullible people everywhere.
Joseph Borg
Jan 22nd, 14:28
The only option left now after toppled gaddafi (which I totally agreed with) is the temporary
occupation by the west to bring and settle peace in the whole country. They should assume the
responsibilities to restore peace and help a new libyan govt to adopt the best policy for the libyans.
Teach them how to be tollerant and show them the way to a democratic system. I dont see other solution
for this country to re establish a new Libya. Let the otherside of the world say what they want.
Tonio Bone
Jan 22nd, 15:28
The only option left is for NO MONEY to be release from the frozen assets until all internal power disputes are sorted and there is an elected democratic government, full-stop!
Martin vella
Jan 22nd, 16:09
Who are you to tell the Libyans how to run their country
Robert Callus
Jan 22nd, 16:33
Occupation I disagree. It would end up another Iraq. However there are other means to pressure the new leaders, especially economic ones.
N Mifsud
Jan 23rd, 12:08
Mr Vella...Jekk bniedem qed jizbalja, thallih jizbalja?
Robert Callus
Jan 22nd, 13:31
Why is the EU treating Libya with a velvet glove? We helped you get rid of the tyrant to become a democracy, now you must act democratic.
True, democracy isn't achieved overnight after decades of tyranny. However protecting minorities from being KILLED with impunity is a very basic. You don't have to become as democratic as Norway to achieve that.
Patrick Zammit
Jan 22nd, 13:27
If illegals from sub Saharan Africa are treated so badly in Libya, why do they flock there on their own accord?
John Azzopoardi
Jan 22nd, 13:15
I totally agree that Libya is one total mess and an unstable and dangerous country to be in. But the Somalis must go back and try to work for democracy in their own country and try to make it better. No one is going to do it for them but themselves. At least the Libyans are working on that goal. Let's not be too foolish and encourage Somalis to come to Malta enmass. Malta is simply too small. And other EU countries today have enough problems with their economiies to allow even one migrant in their own country. Look at Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spaln. In Spain alone, you have 4 million people out of work. In the the UK, you have a 9%unemployment. Maybe, FRance and Germany can take them As well as Sweden.
Emma Xerri
Jan 22nd, 23:18
Why saddle the EU with them? Let them go back to their homes and work to liberate it and educate themselves and work hard. But no, it is easier to come to Europe for the hand-outs and live-off the unbelievers. In a few years they will be demanding their own State in the heartland of Europe. The sad part is that our own leaders are pushing for this to happen.
And Malta, you are being punished for taking the wrong side during the last world war. You have now been designated to be just a platform to contain these transients and your European roots and heritage will soon be a thing of the past.
Victor Vella
Jan 22nd, 11:59
.....And Malta is like Somalia.
Charles Cremona
Jan 22nd, 11:59
So why come here, they should go back to Somalia not become a problem here.
Carmel Farrugia
Jan 22nd, 11:22
There is always an excuse not to be in Libja.
Joseph Sammut
Jan 22nd, 11:06
The Age (e-paper from Melbourne Austrualia - theage.com.au) carried an news item that Afghan illegal immigrants are instructed by the trafficers to make up a good reason/story for illegally entering Australia and sticking to it; the Authorities then have no choice but to accept it to conform to international law. Could we be experiencing the same thing here: can the government take this up with his Libyan counterpart. Illegal immigration is highly unfair on us citizens and criminal.
Joe Morana
Jan 22nd, 16:14
Re- the sob stories: We obviously are! And have been for a liong, long time! Illegal immigration ius jst that: ILLEGAL!
Emma Xerri
Jan 22nd, 23:06
When are people going to realize that their governments are also complicit and 'in on the deal". Isn't it the same governments that make up and create these International Laws in the first place?
What more proof do you need that the West just wants these people in at all costs. Maybe our Western Governments are sick and tired of the charade of democracy and will soon have the right excuse to suspend democracy in favour of a fascist totalitarian government, like most of these immigrants are used to in their homelands, in deference to multiculturalism and as well because the 'immigrants/refugees' will have majority votes in a few decades.
MALCOLM SEYCHELL
Jan 22nd, 10:56
We should thank Laurence Gonzi, The EU, Sarkozy and Nato..
It was obviouse that under Gaddafi Libya would be much better. Pero taparsi l mexxejja taghna qalulna ha jiggieldu ghall liberta. Iggieldu biss biex jiehdu il poter u jaghmlu gungla ohra
Mr Alexander Azzopardi
Jan 22nd, 11:23
Meet the new boss ax il propoganda tal west u min jisimpatizza maha ekk ogbu ! Jpengi l gadaffi lghar bniedem ta dinja
Tonio Bone
Jan 22nd, 11:56
It is only natural that those that the different tribes and factions that fought will vie for power, what did you expect? There is a chance for power and they will all go for it, it's human nature! Il-famuza 'kilba'!
So in your opinion the likes Ben Ali, Mubarak, Gheddafi, Tito and Ceausescu (to mention a few), should have been left to each on gold plates while their citizens rummaged through the trash on the streets?
Grow up!
stephen koludrovic
Jan 22nd, 16:52
@ Tonio Bone,
Please don't ever compare Tito to the rest.
Under the rule of Tito nobody died, it was only after his death, with many thanks to some Western leaders that the carnage started.
mark borg
Jan 22nd, 18:30
So true .....Where is our PM on this Mayhem now ? e......forgot he is fighting against an uprising within his fast sinking ship.
MALCOLM SEYCHELL
Jan 22nd, 21:01
Tonio I think you should grow up and start saying the truth. Arab countries needs dictators to keep stability. Now we have a Somalia as next door neighbour.
Carmelo Aquilina
Jan 23rd, 04:15
@ Stephen Lulodrovic...
Did you forget Milosevic and Serb nationalists in the explanationf or Yugoslavia's demise
@ Malcom
Let the Libyans decide who is leading them - that your are content to have a cruel dictator opress your neighbours says more about you than anything else
Joe Xuereb
Jan 22nd, 10:55
@Mark Anthony Fenech(10:02). What sort of comment is that? Rather, why do you not answer Ms. Vella's usual question, i.e. at what point will Europe have to admit that, numerically speaking, it can not take in more relocating visitors, legitimate or not, as the influx is making the boat keel over.
I never for a moment believed that a post-Gaddafi Libya would proceed democratically. Maybe it is early days but I am not holding my breath. Libya is Libya. And Mark, I am as in touch with people's suffering as the next man. But being blindly humane and caring does have it drawbacks you know. So why are you being so blindly humane? It does beg the question, one requiring a simple enough answer.
@George Debono. Quote: '...who are usually kind hearted with emigrants, as good muslims....'. Usually, but not always, George? And 'as good Muslims....as the ongoing butchering of blood-brothers in Syria, for instance? You travel frequently to Libya Mr. Debono. Maybe you have a vested interest in seeing the matter through rose-tinted glasses? By your own admission, these 'mercenaries', escaping atrocities in their native Somalia were quite happy to commit atrocities 'because the pay was astronomical'. Their collusion is now coming back to haunt them and they want out. Of course. They not like the consequences. You know what the solution is, George (and I hope Fenech is listening)? I think Somalia should start behaving like a good Muslim nation and start to treat its own humanely, instead of resorting to piracy at sea, interception of any material aid meant for that unfortunate country, and try to be seen as making an effort to stop being a failed state. We can not pick up the pieces of all these renegade countries. What does it take to understand that, creating a demographic nightmare with (non)benefits, no letup.
Mr Jimmy Vella
Jan 22nd, 10:46
But we don`t want here either so go back to Somalia and fight for a better life there, just as the Libyans did.Not many here are going to feel sorry for you, you should have never went to libya in the first place.
Ivan Calleja
Jan 22nd, 13:28
In your WE don't include myself because i feel pity for these displaced people!!
stephen koludrovic
Jan 22nd, 17:44
@ Ivan Calleja.
I don't feel any piety for them, However I do feel piety for the women and the over 49 million orphans that the Sub Saharan people have abandoned behind.
Kenneth Galea
Jan 22nd, 10:18
Most said from the beginning that Libya risks sliding into civil war due to the militias who refuse to give up their guns and weapons. But NATO and the West plus the USA wanted at all costs to topple Gaddafi because there is oil involved. Gaddafi was not perfect but he had the ability to keep a very complex country like Libya together. Same with Iraq, Sadaam kept the insurgency firmly under the lid, once he was toppled all hell broke loose. Even Iraqis admit that life under Sadaam was safer because they could do their errands without fear of suicide bombings. One of the Ministers in Libya declared recently that African illegal immigrants are crossing Libya again into their thousands. So I question whether these Somalis are telling the truth!!! This whole mess is the UNHCR and the EU fault at the expense of tax payers like the Maltese and the Italians etc etc
Emma Xerri
Jan 22nd, 23:27
So true. In Iraq, Shia and Sunni are now at each other's throats and the few Christians that are caught in between are now fair game and are being targetted and killed.
he US is only interested to protect it compounds there and they and the rest of the West care nothing for the civilian lives being lost. At least when Saddam was there, Christians had the freedom to worship. It is not so now - Chaldean Christians have been pouring out to save their lives, but the JRS do not mention these refugees (nor the Christians in Nigeria or Copts in Egypt) as they are not Catholic but perversely, they care very much about Somalia and other hardline Islamists, so much so that they want to bring them all here.
A Dimech
Jan 22nd, 10:14
This situation is very worrying for Malta.
Here we have a nation just on our doorstep which could quickly become a failed state -with men armed to the teeth.
This could very easily become a Somalia next to our doorsteps - with illegal activity the only means of sustaining the different militia groups - whether exploitation of Africans, whether drugs, .... we can have a country which degenerates very quickly..
I did post a comment once and asked if we are sure that after Ghaddafi Libya will be a better place or not. The signs are on the wall for all of the people to see!
B. Cachia
Jan 22nd, 10:10
So any hopes we may have had that this problem will go away by itself are proving to be unfounded. Let's see whether the Government finally understands that the scale of this phenomenon makes its virtual open-door policy untenable and irresponsible.
Victor Pulis
Jan 22nd, 10:03
I saw this situation coming during the uprising and I commented on it. Now everyone will want his share of the cake and the factions will fight each other for power. What's interesting is that now that the colonel is dead Libya has slipped onto the back burner. The libyans are no longer a danger to the rest of the world. They are too occupied with their own problems.
Mark Anthony Fenech
Jan 22nd, 10:02
I really wish that Louise Vella would go through the same hardships these Africans go through. Then we'd see what kind of tune she'd whistle.
B. Cachia
Jan 22nd, 11:11
@ Mark Anthony Fenech: So do you think that just because people undergo hardship they should necessarily have the right to enter Malta and reside here? There are a few billion people around the world living in hardship, including the vast majority of the population of Africa. Does it make sense to just give a blank cheque and say that anyone escaping hardship can settle in our country? It may be humane, but is it sustainable?
Emma Xerri
Jan 22nd, 23:37
Yes, Mark Anthony, why is it always the Somalians out of the hundreds of thousands of people that are displaced or facing hardship?
To be sure, in the US, many Somalians who came in as refugees went back to fight in Somalia as Jihadists. In Canada, many went out West to deal drugs, but they found out that not everyone bought in the multicultural claptrap and when they stepped on the turf of the Hell's Angels, who very quickly disposed of them. Then the Somalian community had the gall to demand an investigation as to what happened to their ‘upstanding’ young men.
George Debono
Jan 22nd, 09:52
I Travel to Libya very regularly. This story is a gross exaggeration. Libya cannot do without imported labour, of which thehe re is a great shortage. These persons dont say that the boat trips are organised by the Nigerian Mafia amongst them. In Libya the average wage for Libyan or foreign labour was 500 dinars a month. These is such a big shortage of labour that wages have doubled. So really,whilst i feel for these people, they are doing a grave injustice to the LIbyan people, who are usually kind hearted with emigrants, as good muslims should be. Yes, many black people fought for Ghaddafi because the wages were astronomical. They cant deny it. neither can they now deny the consequences. I have seen with my own eyes the atrocities committed by black mercenaries, and they were not pretty sights.
angelo cilia
Jan 22nd, 22:42
These do not want to work, they heard the great tales of free money and free housing on easy street europe and they came to get some of these freebies.
Louise Vella
Jan 22nd, 09:22
Some questions:
1. Can the Armed Forces of Malta tell us at exactly what point in the sea between Malta and Libya they and the Italian cargo ship picked up this latest boat? On what grounds was it brought to Malta?
2. A "UNHCR spokesman" is quoted. Why is his name not given? Is he by any chance Mr Jon Hoisaeter, UNHCR's chief of station in Malta?
Louise Vella
Jan 22nd, 09:17
Is this sob story meant to tell us that Malta should welcome any number - an indefinite number - of sub-Saharan Africans who claim they are mistreated in Libya? How many thousands of them? And who will assure us that Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and other European countries will then take them off our backs in a show of solidarity and burden-sharing with Malta? Is the solution then not for these sub-Saharan Africans to go back to their own country or some other African country?
kelly scicluna
Jan 22nd, 22:32
totally agree with you