Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba Has Basically Accused Miriam Dalli Of Wanting Malta To Become A Migrant Rescue Hub
Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba has, inadvertently or otherwise, accused his colleague Miriam Dalli of voting in favour of turning Malta into a centre for the rescue of irregular migrants.
“If this amendment had passed, it would have meant that Malta would have been forced to take in between 700,000 and one million migrants who are currently in Libya waiting to cross,” Agius Saliba said, shortly after the European Parliament rejected the amendment in question.
However, Miriam Dalli voted in favour of this amendment and said a report that this meant she wants Malta to turn into a rescue centre for migrants amounted to a “twisting of facts”.
So how did this happen?
Last week, the European Parliament voted in favour of a joint-party motion which urged the EU to take coordinated action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences.
The motion is vast in nature, proposing everything from a €50 billion coronavirus solidarity fund to the suspension of mortgages and bank loans to social media companies taking an active stance to ban disinformation and hate speech related to COVID-19.
Before a vote was taken, the European United Left/Nordic Green Left political group proposed an amendment which reads as follows:
“[The European Parliament] calls on member states to abide by their obligation under international law to assist ships in distress and provide a place for disembarkation for people who have been saved at sea, including by civil society boats and merchant vessels; recalls that solutions should be found to protect the lives and health of both the people in distress at sea and the people on land”.
This amendment was rejected by the majority of MEPs and therefore didn’t make its way into the final motion.
PN MEPs David Casa and Roberta Metsola voted against the proposed amendment
Out of the Maltese contingent, only Miriam Dalli voted in favour of the amendment, a stance taken by the majority of her political group, the Socialists & Democrats. Alex Agius Saliba, along with PN MEPs Roberta Metsola and David Casa voted against it, while PL MEPs Josianne Cutajar and Alfred Sant abstained.
In a statement, Metsola and Casa said they voted against the amendment because it placed the onus for disembarkation of migrants solely on EU member states while excusing safe third countries from playing their part.
“It is a far-left amendment that had no place in the text. The PN delegation’s position has always been totally consistent – save lives and have an all-encompassing migration policy – fair with those in need of protection, firm with those who do not and strong with those abusing of the most vulnerable on our planet,” they said. “Labour’s policy remains anyone’s guess, it changes according to who speaks.”
Once the vote was rejected, Agius Saliba published a video in which he claimed this amendment would have ultimately forced Malta to take in hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants.
“Some MEPs had tried to move an amendment that would have harmed Malta. Although it didn’t mention Malta directly, this amendment said that, in this moment of a public health emergency, Malta would have to become a rescue centre in the Mediterranean.”
“It would have meant that we’d have been forced to accept between 700,000 and one million migrants who are currently waiting to cross from Libya. I explained Malta’s position to a number of MEPs, the majority of MEPs voted against this amendment and this burden didn’t materialise.”
Agius Saliba said this vote means the European Parliament agrees with Prime Minister Robert Abela’s decision to close Malta’s ports to irregular migrants.
“Paul Borg Olivier, Andrew Borg Cardona and Jason Azzopardi said they want to send the Prime Minister and Cabinet to jail over this position,” he said, citing legal action instigated by the lawyers of the organisation Repubblika.
“They can now jail me and the majority of the European Parliament too because they are speaking with the same voice and tone as the Maltese government.”
However, Dalli interpreted the amendment differently
After the website MaltaWinds published an article claiming her ‘Yes’ vote meant she wanted Malta to serve as the only Mediterranean rescue centre for migrants, similar logic as that espoused by Agius Saliba, Dalli clarified the situation.
“It is absolutely not true that I voted in favour of Malta becoming a centre for the rescue of migrants or in favour of Malta leaving its ports open,” she said.
The MEP said the rejected amendment was actually a call for EU member states to follow international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas which says vessels can disembark people in their flag states.
This tallies with a recent remark by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo that German migrant rescue NGO vessels should disembark the people they pick up in Hamburg, rather than in Malta or Italy.
“The amendment says that lives should be saved and Malta has always done its utmost in this regard,” she said. “It also says that a solution must be found for the migration issue.”
“I’ve been working on this issue throughout my six years as MEP and I’ve always placed the national interest first and foremost, because I know that we did a lot in this sector despite our limitations.”
“I’m still working with the Maltese authorities to convince our colleagues in the European Parliament of the reality in Malta. Twisting facts is unacceptable.”
Lovin Malta has asked Agius Saliba whether he believes Dalli wants to turn Malta into a migrant rescue centre but the question remains unanswered as of the time of writing.
Cover photo: Labour MEPs Miriam Dalli and Alex Agius Saliba. Photo posted in June 2019 by Alex Agius Saliba after Miriam Dalli was appointed vice-president of the S&D group
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