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Hal-Far ‘Open’ Center
20/08/2011
28 Comments
About Andrew Azzopardi
Dr Andrew Azzopardi is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Malta. His lecturing & research focus on inclusive education, sociology, critical pedagogy, disability politics, youth & community studies. He has published extensively in the field of disability studies and inclusive education. He is a Member of the Editorial Panel of the highly acclaimed International Journal of Inclusive Education. Andrew also produces and presents a highly popular radio show on RADJU MALTA called 'Ghandi x' Nghid'. He can be reached at andrew.azzopardi@um.edu.mt28 Responses to “Hal-Far ‘Open’ Center”
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21/08/2011
[...] blogger Andrew Azzopardi has taken the cause of the Safi inmates (for inmates they are) to heart. His blog has been [...]
Not the best living standards, but they are not doing much to make it any better. I do not fancy paying taxes for them to start a riot. I’m sorry if they don’t like what there is on offer we are ready to pay their ticket back home…. I’m sorry.
Mark I respect your position much as I disagree…the thing is that most of these families come from desperate situations… I’m not after them being in 5 star hotels – its hygiene, adequate water, electricity, no rats, decent ventilation, clean grounds….that’s all ‘I’ am asking/appealing for….
Caged people will behave as caged animals do. We can’t expect any different unless we treat the migrants with humanity and fairness.
you hit the nail on the head biww’u’
and i’m worried about where the limits of the cage really are…
I think I would riot…… Trailer trash springs to mind (or in my face!) Someone mentioned taxes above……. Maybe a lot more taxes will get dished out to them in the near future, as with asylum seekers in the UK they sued the government for false imprisonment, by the pictures they may have more grounds for compensation! (if they are entitled to see a lawyer that is!)
What we have to understand is that most of these people are qualified professionals in their various skills. They left their country because of humanitarian reasons not for a holiday. What I am afraid of is that these people are treated differently because of the colour of their skin. I hope I’m wrong ! We hear all the time about how inclusive and tollerant Maltese people are but facts are showing otherwise. I am fed up of walking down the streets hearing things like … “These blacks are everywhere” or “we should just kick them out” and many more comments like that. Violence is never the answer but put yourselves in their shoes. You left your broken country in the hope of a better life and what you find is seclusion and closed doors. Let’s start by giving them basic needs and a decent humane surroundings.
According to the refugee commission 70% have only up to a primary level of education. So much for “most are qualified professionals in their various skills”. Only 3% are refugees, the rest are economic migrants. Even those given subsidiary protection are economic migrants , hence the reason why their application for refugee status was refused in the first place.
Studies in other European countries have shown that most will never work and will just live on benefits for the rest of their lives. This will result in people who have contributed all their life not getting back what they put into the system as it is being slowly sucked dry. . Every 8 immigrants is a pension less available to a Maltese. We already have to work till 65, up from 61. Once the welfare system collapses they will just up sticks and leave, leaving us to clear up the mess. Now you see why most Maltese are not thrilled to have them around, skin colour or no skin colour.
Interesting seeing so many satellite dishes.
Do they have them in their own countries?
If we are going to measure quality of life with a satellite dish – than i have a low quality of life!
Not all of them left their homes for humanitarian reasons.
Some years ago, their facilities were brand-new and within a few weeks, they had a riot – also! – and destroyed everything.
Do I have a satellite dish on my own roof? Which is not even mine?
When this phenomenon started, way back in the late 80′s – remember the first lot of immigrants that turned up at Sliema? No, I suppose not! – I was one of a group of teachers who went to Safi and other places to try and teach they young immigrants some English. We had to stop because the adults turned against us and abused us and threatened us with violence. The same happened with brand-new buildings and almost state-of-the-art facilities – these facilities were destroyed in a riot that took place weeks later.
Steve Galea: you are generalising. I don’t care what skin-colour they have. My country is limited – limited in financial and other resources, but especially space and I am already living in one of the most-densely populated EU member states and I don’t want it to be more densely populated than ever. It could be white Russians as far as I am concerned. Or tanned Spaniards – it’s the same for me.
Hal Far is an open centre, they are not caged. I wonder about toilets and showers though, the poor people actually stink on the bus and the bushes outside the centre stink of urine.
Franco, I don’t know about the 80′s, but I have a lot of friends who give English and Maltese lessons to immigrants. And their experience is the exact opposite of the one you describe.
That we pay a lot of taxes to detain immigrants is true though. Detention should at least be shortened. Let them work and pay taxes. Which is what they do once they are out:
http://robertcallus.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/dont-they-take-our-jobs-anymore/
@ Robert Callus: I doubt whether our taxes go towards the immigrants. We get money from the EU specifically for that. Detention policy is important and should be kept as it is.
Regarding lessons, it depends where these lessons are given. In OUR time, we used to go to Tentopoli itself!
Charity begins at home though! there are quite a number of Maltese who live in similar conditions, so I think we should help them first.
Increasing our taxes to help them and then you cannot even catch the bus from certain stops because they passing dirty comments, is not my ideal situation.
… jien nista’ nifhem li dan kollu qed jitfa piz fuq il-pajjiz taghna – imma nemmen illi hafna minn dawn huma sitwazzjonijiet difficli…min jaf forsi jekk nisimghu ftit stejjer diretti inkunu nistghu nifhmu aktar x’ qed jigri – forsi jekk insuqu vicin dawn il-positijiet inhossu aktar x’ qed jigri…ma jimpurtax imbilli ma naqblux – li nitkellmu nhoss jien huwa saghan hafna…ghalija dawn jinsabu f’ pajjizi allura l-karita bl-argument ta’ Lara jibda maghhhom ukoll
nemmen li huma ghandhom stejjer tal-biza, pero tkellem ma xi zaghzagh li jkunu qed jistennew tal-linja f’dawk l-inhawi u saqsihom ghall-esperjenzi taghhom. U din jien qed nghidha minn esperjenza personali.
2. Nofs il-hmieg li hemm, huwa hmieg taghhom stess, anka jekk tmur pajjizhom tara l-istess hmieg.
Personalment nahseb li ghalkemm vera huma haqqhom xi forma ta ghajnuna, qed nitfghu wisq dawl fuqhom, mentri hawn hafna kazijiet ta familji Maltin li ghandhom bzonn din l-ghajnuna u li m’humiex jaghmlu l-hsara u storbju.
Jien ma naqbilx li ‘charity begins at home’. Hawnhekk, ha ndahhal il-fidi u r-religjon: u mhux se nitkellem fuq precetti tal-Knisja imma fuq il-Vangelu ‘raw’, jekk tippermettili nuza dik il-kelma. Jien Kristu jghidli biex l-ewwel nghin lil min ma jigix minni, UMBAGHAD nghin lil dawk li jigu minni. Fil-Vangelu, insibu: ‘Xi hlas se jkollok jekk inti thobb biss lil dawk li jhobbuk? Mhux kulhadd jaghmel hekk?’ U din, lili – jien minix xi bniedem religjuz, anzi! – timpressjonani. Ejja nghiduha, mhux anke fil-hajja interna tal-gzira ta’ kuljum naghmlu hekk? Niffavorixxu lil tal-partit taghna; umbaghad niffavorixxu lil xi qarib (u anke hemm naghmlu differenzi, ahseb w ara!) lil xi habib. Il-hbieb u l-hbieb tal-hbieb… u sejrin.
Issa, jista’ jaghti l-kaz li int tigi taqa’ u tqum mill-Vangelu (wara kollox, mhux bnedmin li kitbuhom?), mela allura, injora kollox u lil kulhadd, u aghmel li trid. Pero’, tghidx allura li int civili.
Le, u hawn naqbel ma’ Lara, jien mhux qed niehu gost li nara dak iz-zibel li hemm il-Marsa, fit-toroq tal-madwar, f’Tentopoli, ecc…. Bizzejjed ghandna hafna Maltin li jien narahom bhala irmixk (zibel); ma rridx, le, nara izjed irmixk. Hafna nies ma jaghmlu xejn, fix-xemx, jistennew loqma xoghol illegali, hafna minnu. Abbuz, fl-istess hin.
Irid ikun hemm soluzzjoni. Imma li nkunu inumani, le!
Andrew, I don’t wish to minimise and pooh-pooh what Zammit writes. But, please keep this in mind:
1. When you write very long, your readers switch off. Remember your student days, when teachers and lecturers alike, rattled on and on and on about some subject and you were unable to concentrate for more than …. 10-15 minutes? As a teacher – I spent nearly 20 years in the profession, and now I am in a different one altogether – I always tried to ensure that I didn’t carry on and on on one given subject for longer than 8 minutes. And the same applies to writers and those behind articles. The longer you write, the more prone you are to being ignored and the page turned.
2. The writers behind articles think far too much of themselves – they think that they move people’s opinions. Andrew, I have news for you: it’s not the case. A very small percentage of people actually read the newspaper, except for the sports pages. Then, there are some other who buy political newspapers due to their allegiance. But it stops there.
Enough for now, otherwise you will be accusing me of not practicing what I am ‘preaching’ viz. (1) above.
)
in fatti franco hekk kont ha nghidlek, cioe’ li qed tikteb fit-tul!!!!!! hahahaha
I suggest you write this on akkuza.com….I’m sure he will take the feedback…
Hal Far may not be the 5 star hotel one would wish it be … but it offers shelter, water and electricity. I do expect the residents to help keep the place clean … thus no rats and hygenic.
The satellite dishes they makes their life more comfortable … and also indicates they have TV sets.
What they definitely need is to be educated to keep the place clean and to take care of the toilets, sinks and water installations.
Well, you know that teachers are usually the sort of ‘do what I say but don’t do what I do’, haha!
I speak in general: we have reached a stage, in Malta, where you cannot criticise anybody, journalists especially. And more especially, the ‘young’ ones. The new generation knows it all, doesn’t it? You simply have no advice that you can give, nothing that you can contribute because they know it all and they have invented the wheel. This ‘fourth estate’, as they pride themselves to be, would criticise anyone for being arrogant and for not accepting words of wisdom, but when you look at them, they are worse than those that they are criticising.
Of course they are ‘inmates’. You cannot just have a very small island like ours accept just anyone coming over without any proper documents, and illegally, and be allowed to roam all over the island without a roof over his head, etc… I simply cannot understand how there are people who would suggest such a thing!
………another good one on the Malta Independent on Sunday by akkuza.com……