I would like to comment about the article on a statement made in court by a police officer in a case involving an assault on a Maltese by a Somali national.

I have frequently visited the Marsa open centre and have made friends with many of the residents there. Not once, as a woman, was I made to feel uncomfortable or scared. All the people I have met there have been very generous and friendly and so hospitable and welcoming to me. Thus, statements such as "Marsa is becoming a no-go area" leaves me completely dumbfounded. Marsa has never been the most pleasant place to visit because of its pollution, haphazard buildings and it being an industrial zone. Not mentioning also the fact that Marsa is a common tag for drug and sex "markets".

What the police officer doesn't seem to comprehend is that criminality is evident and inevitable within any population; an African isn't an exception. Thus, I can't comprehend why such tumult and fuss. The truth is that such a fuss was made because this wasn't just any foreigner but an African one. It is amazing that anything a person of colour does in this country has to be shouted about and highlighted in a particular way by the public and the media. What needs to be questioned is not criminality but the hostility towards immigrants as a prominent factor in Maltese culture.

Statements like "This is not Somalia" shouldn't be said in public, especially by people occupying powerful positions. Just because these people come from a "different culture" doesn't mean that they don't get the concept of law. Everyone gets it and everyone is even more capable of breaking it. That's called human nature, which applies for all.