WATCH: Enraged Maltese Child Shouts At Crew Of Migrant Rescue Ship: ‘You Don’t Belong Here’
Listen to this young kid, egged on by her mother, hurling abuse and racist taunts towards the crew of @MV_LIFELINE last night. Disgusting, and if these people really are the ‘Maltese patriots’, as they call themselves, then I don’t want to be Maltese anymore. #lifeline pic.twitter.com/Chm8W6l8g0
— Darrin Zammit Lupi (@darrinzl) June 28, 2018
Video footage has emerged of a Maltese child hurling abuse at the crew of a migrant rescue ship as it docked in the Grand Harbour with a group of sub-Saharan asylum seekers last night.
The video, which appears to have been shot from the Senglea bastions, was posted on Twitter by Reuters photojournalist Darrin Zammit Lupi.
In it, the child shouts out that the rescue ship crew “don’t belong here”, that it is ferrying asylum seekers to Malta to “take over” the island, and freaks out as soon as he sees someone on the boat looking at her.
The child appears to have been accompanied to the bastion by her parents, who egged her on as he shouted at the asylum seekers.
Zammit Lupi told The Times he heard the girl’s mother instructing her daughter what to shout to to the crew, describing such behaviour as “disgusting manipulation”.
He added that he heard, but didn’t film, the girl shouting blatantly racist abuse, such as “we don’t like black people” and “black people want to kill us”.
“Listen to this young kid, egged on by her mother, hurling abuse and racist taunts towards the crew of the Lifeline last night,” Zammit Lupi said. “Disgusting, and if these people really are the ‘Maltese patriots’, as they call themselves, then I don’t want to be Maltese anymore.”
The 234 asylum seekers are currently being housed at the initial reception centre in Marsa and, if their asylum applications are accepted, they will be distributed amongst eight European countries.
Malta has since closed its ports to NGO rescue ships, pending an investigation into whether the Lifeline was operating under national and international law, specifically with regards the vessel’s certification or registration.
According to reports, the Lifeline captain will be be prosecuted on charges related to the vessel’s registration.