Migrants kicked out of the Ħal Far Tent Village immediately upon the relaxation of the Covid-19 lockdown are sleeping rough and have no money for food and basic needs. A number of Eritreans were seen in the square outside City Gate this morning huddled together as the day broke. This website is informed the problem has persisted for several days.

As this website reported some time ago, they were thrown out of Ħal Far Tent Village on 21 June. At the time they had expressed concerns with the management of their camp that they had nowhere else to go.

The evicted residents are asylum seekers whose application for refugee status is in process. This means that the Maltese state is obliged according to our own laws to ensure they are treated humanely.

However, it seems that no consideration was given to the fact that the migrants lost their jobs because they were locked-in for an extended period inside the tent village. Many of them have since been unable to find work because of the economic slowdown.

The situation shows the government’s mismanagement of migration and the failure of the integration policies that remain on paper. Malta is supported by the EU with hard currency to manage asylum seekers and provide basic shelter. When the European Commission rejected Malta’s request to pay for the Captain Morgan off-shore prisons, a Commission spokesman said Malta left over €10 million in unused funds intended to help with integrating migrants into the community.

“While Malta had not requested new funding for the operation, it had asked to make use of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. As of April, Malta still had just over €10 millions of its AMIF available for use.”

But in a reply to a parliamentary question, Evarist Bartolo said that Malta had used up its more than €20 million share in AMIF funds allocated for the years 2014-2020. This appears to be wrong information that either shows incompetent administration of EU funds or a wilful act by Evarist Bartolo intended to mislead parliament with a lie.

The government’s policies during Covid-19 appeared to be intended to cultivate racial hatred and prejudice against migrants. Kicking asylum seekers out of reception centres and dumping them on the streets may be a consequence of incompetent public administration. But a worse explanation could be the provocation of racial hatred as a matter of policy.

The pathological hater of black people Norman Lowell yesterday addressed a small crowd outside parliament in a speech replete with prejudice and incitement. It is not unlikely that images of migrants sleeping rough will continue to fuel far right rhetoric with the risk of racial violence.

Only last year a resident of Ħal Far Tent Village, Lassana Cisse, was shot point blank and killed by off duty soldiers who are now on bail pending their trials.

Meanwhile, this website is informed the archdiocese is helping out with the newly homeless migrants by providing some food and looking for arrangements for shelter.