Muscat warns against xenophobia, appeals for sensitivity following case of Zack Meli

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning warned against xenophobia in Malta, and appealed for sensitivity from the media and public, following the death of Zack Meli last week.

Speaking at a political event in St Julians, Muscat said that the sentiment following the tragic death, which was affected by the media and "public who swallowed it straight away" was that where foreigners were promptly put to blame. Muscat labeled this sentiment as 'dangerous', 'ugly', 'racist, and 'xenophobic', which caused a "sense of division following the incident."  He stated that such a sentiment "reveals the problem we need to face as a population."

Muscat appealed for sensitivity. "I appeal also to the media who took things out of context and already started creating facts," he said. "I myself believed the headlines when I read them. Then you notice that the story was completely different from how it began." He said that this was done by media who usually "preach inclusion." "Instead of analyzing the situation, they make it worse," he said.

Referring to foreigners living in Malta, Muscat said that the population is growing, and, referring to jobs which including cleaning the roads and fixing things, Muscat said "either we are ready to do them or we get people from abroad to do them. Our country needs to bring in people to do certain works, and they are also creating wealth."

"This fantasy that we have to make some Berlin wall where we say one side is Maltese people and the other is foreigners.. will create problems that other countries have faced before through extremism," he said. "I can go along with this and it will be popular, but it will be a bomb that will blow up in the hands of the future generations."

Muscat rounded up this topic by saying that solving this issue is a question of enforcement.

"I don't care if they are Maltese or foreign. All I care about is that the law is enforced if someone does something wrong - the law is there for everyone."

from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2FPdGHT
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