Malta’s humanitarian crisis

If history is in the eye of the beholder, then there are innumerable ways to see and to struggle with the events that took place a week ago at the Ħal Far tent village. What is clear, however, is that these events have called Malta to a crossroads, to undertake an urgent reassessment of the ways in which this country receives and responds to the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers. Monday’s theatre of power, that saw a steady flow of riot police enter the open centre in the aftermath of the incident on Sunday, serves as a clear reminder that the government and people of Malta are still a long way from finding an effective and dignified response to increasing numbers of asylum seekers who, even if only temporarily, call the Maltese islands their home. Our front page story today reporting claims that those arrested faced prison mistreatment is shocking. It is clear that these particular issues have been fomenting for decades. Taken together, they point to a systemic breakdown in the way governments, across party lines, have attempted to confront the complex issue of migration. The explosion of vitriolic hate speech following the riots, splashed across social media and...