Joseph Muscat has given the strongest signal yet that the government wants to end employers ‘shopping’ for migrant workers, evident daily at the Marsa roundabout.
The Prime Minister yesterday said employer exploitation of migrants looking for work had to stop. “I am hurt by the third world scene at the Marsa roundabout... I do not want to see those scenes,” he told supporters in Sliema.
He was referring to the migrants who sit at roadside walls in Marsa waiting for prospective employers to give them work. Most are engaged illegally in temporary work in the construction industry.
The situation has often led to abuses, with migrants claiming they are paid a pittance, or nothing at all. However, Maltese workers complain that employers prefer the cheap labour provided by migrants.
Dr Muscat said the government was evaluating its options and asked whether the time was ripe to regularise the process by making employers apply to engage migrants on a temporary basis. “Is it time to ensure migrants are paid the minimum wage? They are vulnerable workers and we have to defend them and in this way we will also be defending Maltese workers from exploitation by employers,” he said.
I am hurt by the third world scene at Marsa
Addressing the wider European issue, Dr Muscat said no wall could stop migration.
He was alluding to the four-metre-high fence erected by Hungary in a bid to stop thousands of migrants from entering the country.
The EU will hold an emergency summit this week as thousands of migrants, mostly Syrian refugees, pour into Europe.
“No wall will stop this phenomenon but it will simply lead to a shift in migration flows.”
Describing the current situation as an “ugly period” for Europe, Dr Muscat said the EU needed a new system to deal with it.
Under current proposals to relocate migrants among all member states, Malta will take in 75 migrants from Italy and Greece.
But the number may have to become higher under new Brussels proposals, Dr Muscat added. “If that is the case we will take more.”
Malta had to be at the forefront of solidarity on the migration issue, Dr Muscat stressed.