I would like to call on the Maltese Government, which bears control over these vessels, to ensure that first and foremost, human life and its dignity are protected, and these people are allowed to disembark.
Xandru Cassar, Protest Leader
This Wednesday marked 35 days that 425 African migrants have been detained from entering Maltese ports and kept on four tourist boats.
Several students have been meeting up outside of the Parliament building in Valletta in increasing numbers over the past week. Their message is simple: to protest their detainment and demand that they are let in.
The protesters have been meeting on days that Parliament is in session and handing out letters to MPs on entering. Their next protest will be on Monday, and the numbers seem to be continuously rising despite the backlash they have received online.
Their lead protester, Xandru Cassar delivered a speech during Wednesday’s protest to speak out on the current situation and send a direct public message to government officials.
The Government led by Robert Abela is keeping people hostage to political games. In doing so, it is breaching fundamental human rights and is in contempt of the dignity of human life… These people are effectively being psychologically tortured as a consequence of lack of information on what their future holds and of being denied their fundamental rights, in arbitrary detention.
Cassar emphasized that these human beings’ rights should be protected at all costs. Currently, they are being stripped of their dignity. The protesters are demanding that these migrants are simply allowed to disembark in a safe port. “Once these people have been allowed to disembark, the procedures to establish the right to asylum can take place,” Cassar continued.
Cassar closed off with an appeal to youths and students to also keep in mind the Maltese situation when speaking up about the horrific recent events in the United States. He invited anyone who feels that the treatment of these migrants is unjust, to contact them on Facebook to join in next week’s protest.