Beating around the bush never did any good, so forgive me as, just for this post, I will throw all diplomacy to the wind and pose some direct questions to all those racists who are currently petitioning against the prime minister’s decision to cancel the repatriation flights:
Would you be willing to tie someone’s hands and feet, keeping their body exposed while you whip the soles of their feet?
Would you be willing to leave someone tied up, lying on the ground face down, practically naked and exposed to extreme elements?
Would you be willing to starve and beat a pregnant woman, until she suffers a still-birth?
Would you be willing to deny someone medical care, leaving them to a slow and painful death?
Would you be willing to lock someone up in a shipping container, with limited access to air and practically no movement?
I have no doubt that most of you will be shocked at these questions and will answer with a definite NO. Which makes it all the more perplexing exactly why so many are insisting on this push back policy for migrants.
Because, you see, this is exactly what would happen to pretty much every single migrant who is sent back to his land of origin.
It is useless saying that we are not responsible for whatever happens to these migrants once they touch home-ground. If ours was the hand that gave the order for their repatriation, the responsibility for whatever befalls them after said repatriation would be ours.
Their fate would be on our conscience, as much as it would be had we personally carried out the inhumane acts that these humans (and let’s not forget that they are humans before they are migrants) will be subjected to in their country.
And if any of you racists masquerading as patriots think that I am exaggerating about this treatment, I haven’t pulled out these descriptions out of my hat, you know. They are all first-hand accounts, documented and proven. You can read more about it on these links:
www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stand_strong_Joseph_Muscat_The_National_Interest_comes_first/?fSnpefb&pv=17
www.refworld.org/docid/4b20f02dc.html
www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1930_1361444666_q16329-eritrea.pdf
So, those racists who have signed the petition urging our prime minister to rethink his non-repratriation decision – ie, asking him to effectively become a torturer and a murderer – shame on you.
We do not need your brand of patriotism in Malta.