Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has urged the public not to let the migration dilemma between Malta and Italy fan the flames of racism.
In a short phone-in on the Labour Party’s radio station, Dr Muscat said he had been taken aback by xenophobic comments he had seen and read after Italy’s new Home Affair’s Minister Matteo Salvini last week said Malta would have to start taking on its share of rescued migrants.
“I won’t let the current situation fan flames of racism in our country. I will ensure that the Maltese national interest comes first and foremost, but that should never be saddled by those trying to fan flames of hate and racism amongst us,” he said.
Speaking at a press conference last week, Mr Salvini said Italy would be adopting a far tougher stance towards Malta on migration issues.
“The Good Lord put Malta closer to African shores than Sicily… Malta cannot always say ‘no’ to any request to intervene [on migrant rescues],” Mr Salvini said.
Dr Muscat however this morning insisted Malta had always followed the rules that have been agreed upon by the international community and would continue to do so.
“For us, saving human lives is the priority,” he said.
The Labour leader insisted that all countries had to follow the rules agreed upon – governments and humanitarian organisations.
He warned against the negative fallout of member states “going it alone”, but added that Malta also prioritised having the best possible relations with Italy.
“We do not need to be on opposing sides on this matter. Our interests tally and I won’t be one of those to make hard declarations, but rather will work to clear out any potential misunderstandings to ensure we maintain a good rapport, not only with Italy, but with all our neighbours,” he said.
IVF
Earlier, Dr Muscat spoke about the controversial IVF reform which he said showed how we the government listened to the public.
Last week the government dropped plans to legalise altruistic surrogacy and anonymise gamete donation.
Dr Muscat this morning said this showed that the government had listened when it consulted. On the removal of surrogacy, he said this would be “tackled separately”.
“We did all this while retaining important principles, such as embryo freezing for instance which was something we wanted to insist on,” he said.
Dr Muscat hit out at the Opposition which he said had adopted confusing positions on the matter.
The Opposition, he said, had first claimed the government had been forced to make changes after it rushed in, and then later said nothing had really changed at all.
“The Opposition’s attitude in the parliamentary committee was basically against any modernisation of this law,” he said.