Patriots’ Movement Sues Maltese Government For Signing Global Migration Pact Without Debate Or Public Consultation
Left: Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela; Right: Moviment Patrjotti Maltin at a press conference. Photo: MPM
The Moviment Patrijotti Maltin has sued the Maltese government after it signed the UN’s historic global compact for migration without engaging in any public consultation or calling for for a vote in Parliament.
“We have nothing against refugees, but we are against human trafficking, racism, xenophobia and immigration to a country as small as Malta that is already overpopulated,” the MPM said in a judicial protest. “Immigration is causing environmental problems, high rents, security problems and poor conditions for Maltese workers who now have to compete against migrants susceptible to precarious conditions, all against Article 9 of the Constitution.”
“Malta would be over-populated even if every foreigner had to leave, and it is low-income workers and families who are suffering the brunt of such unbridled immigration.”
The UN Global Compact for Migration, the first ever international deal on the migration crisis, was signed by the vast majority of UN members earlier this week. The pact, which is politically but not legal binding, lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration and discourage illegal migration.
These include minimising the “adverse drivers and structural factors” that force people to leave their home countries, promoting the saving of lives, ensuring all migrants are provided with adequate documentation, creating conditions that allow migrants to contribute to sustainable development in all countries, and safely readmitting migrants to their home countries if necessary.
The UN migration compact was signed by 164 nations this week
Although the compact affirms the sovereign right of states to dictate their own migration policies within the confines of international law, the Moviment Patrijotti Maltin warned that it sets the parameters of further international treaties and conventions.
“By signing this compact, the Maltese government is stating that it will use it as a basis on which to formulate international treaties and declarations on migration in the short and long term,” they said. “It is therefore paving the way for signatories to accept migrants, which could be detrimental to the Maltese state.”
They also claimed the compact could well be a prelude to an international declaration of migration as a human right and that “no country will be allowed to refuse permanent entry to migrants”.
“We are therefore urging the Maltese government to either not sign this compact or, if it has already signed it, to withdraw its signature.”
164 nations have signed this deal, but some countries – including the United States, Italy, Australia, Chile, Austria, Hungary and Poland – have rejected it.
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