The government is working on sending back to Italy the migrants who were found living in inhumane conditions on a cow farm last week, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Sunday morning.
Speaking during a question and answer session on One radio, Dr Muscat said that these migrants came to Malta legally, flying in from Italy. But they did not have the necessary permits to work here and so the government was working on sending them back to Italy.
The 120 migrants were evicted from the cow farm in Qormi by the Planning Authority and the police on Monday. With nowhere to go, some of the migrants have even begged to return to the farm.
On criticism that the action at the farm led to the group becoming homeless, Dr Muscat argued that such issues were a double-edged sword. While action has to be taken, this sometimes led to further problems. The Prime Minister insisted, however, that the authorities could not ignore such issues and if further problems arose as a result, these would then be dealt with accordingly.
Dr Muscat also spoke extensively about the migration issues the country faced, after more than 200 migrants were brought to Malta this week.
He explained that while Malta had offered assistance to two migrant rescue vessels, the migrants onboard were shared with other countries, a move that was possible following discussions at length between himself and the President of France Emmanuel Macron.
In the latest case, the Aquarius, carrying 141 people had been allowed to dock in Malta, but none of the migrants would be staying here. A further half of the group of 114 migrants that were brought to Malta last week after rescue in Maltese waters, would also be shared.
Dr Muscat said that while two migrant rescue ships were being in Malta pending issues over their registration, the Aquarius was allowed to leave after Malta was informed that action was already being taken by its flag state - Gibraltar.
Dr Muscat also insisted that contrary to reports, there was no ban on NGO vessels carrying migrants, insisting that all decisions taken by the government on this were based on international laws.
“There is no ban, as reports claim, but we are adhering to international laws,” the Prime Minister went on, adding that this was also the case when dealing with issues with Italy, insisting that Malta’s position is “legally and morally correct”.
Dr Muscat also expressed his condolences to the Italian people in light of the collapse of a bridge in Genoa that left 43 people dead, saying that a lot of Maltese people travelled to the port city regularly and so the tragedy had a great impact here too.
He said that the government has been monitoring bridges all over Malta to ensure that they were safe, pointing to the Mistra bridge as an example of emergency works carried out recently. Dr Muscat added that works will also be carried out at the Qormi bridge after infrastructure issues were highlighted there.
The Prime Minister ended the session by commenting on the credit rating by DBRS, saying that a clean bill of health was once again given to Malta’s economy.