Two African Jesuits minding their own business were approached by a uniformed policeman outside a police station on Friday morning and told to “go back to Africa, you don’t belong here”.
Fr Beatus Mauki SJ and Fr Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator SJ were walking towards the bus stop close to the Msida police station when they saw the lone policeman approach.
Initially they thought he would ask them for identification, but instead he made the offensive remarks out of the blue.
“We were shocked. It is unacceptable for someone who is supposed to uphold the law and offer protection to make such abusive remarks,” Fr Mauki told The Sunday Times.
They were not wearing their clerical collars or garments when the incident took place.
Fr Mauki SJ is a Tanzanian Jesuit who is seven months into a two-year placement with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Malta, while Nigerian Fr Orobator SJ is Provincial of East Africa and was visiting for a few days to monitor Fr Mauki’s placement and deliver a public lecture at University.
Neither of them had ever been spoken to in such a manner anywhere in the world, and Fr Orobator’s initial reaction was to ask the policeman if he was serious.
When the policeman replied he was joking, Fr Orobator asked for an apology, but the policeman refused and accused the priests of attempting to make an issue from a joke. He then walked away, according to Fr Mauki.
Fr Mauki, a qualified mental health nurse, had heard frequent tales of xenophobic and racist incidents from the refugees and asylum seekers he worked with through JRS Malta, but Friday’s incident was the first time he had been the target of such a remark.
“How can we expect people to report racist incidents when this is the attitude of some police officers? It’s very unfortunate because police officers such as this one cast a bad light on the excellent work of the police in general,” he said.
He chose to speak out on the issue because he believes many such incidents go unreported and unpunished, creating an environment in which racist and xenophobic attitudes are normalised.
He did not make a formal complaint at the time because he was unaware that police officers in Malta could be identified by their badge number.
However, after recalling the incident to local Jesuit friends, JRS director Fr Joe Cassar SJ wrote a letter of complaint to the Police Commissioner on their behalf.
“I hope the incident is a one-off, but it does undermine confidence in the police because they are duty-bound to protect everyone,” Fr Cassar said.
“Although the police officer was not aware they were priests, it’s worrying to think that the only thing that could have spared these men such abuse is a clerical collar.
“We want to highlight the problem of xenophobic verbal abuse because we’re concerned it is not being properly addressed,” Fr Cassar added.
Questions sent to the police yesterday were not answered by the time of going to press.
The police media relations unit said last night it had so far not been informed in any form about the case.
Once the police are furnished with more details about the allegation, it would carry out a full-scale investigation and take action if need be, as is always done.
At this stage, the police cannot confirm the alleged incident.