Immigrants beaten in peaceful protest

Herman Grech and Massimo Farrugia, Times of Malta, 14th January 2005
www.timesofmalta.com

Twenty-seven illegal immigrants and two soldiers were injured, some of them seriously, after members of the armed forces beat the immigrants during a peaceful protest at the Kirkop football ground yesterday morning.

The Armed Forces of Malta said a number of illegal immigrants suffered some injuries "after the soldiers closed in" on them.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

About 95 detainees at the Safi Barracks were protesting against their lengthy detention. Soldiers in anti-riot gear who had turned up en masse beat them with truncheons when the migrants refused to return to their barracks.

The immigrants faced truncheons and aggression as the soldiers - in the presence of superiors - charged at them, egged on by other personnel who lined the fence.

Some of the soldiers looking on could be heard urging their colleagues to be heavy-handed with the protesters.

"Smash those blacks' faces in" and "Hit him in the head" were some of the comments shouted out during a 15-minute, one-sided scuffle.

The incidents took place on the football pitch, adjacent to the barracks, in full view of residents and journalists.

The protests started at about 8.30 a.m. when the illegal immigrants marched onto the pitch holding banners with the words "I am not a criminal" and "We are not animals". They chanted "All we are saying is give us freedom" to the tune of John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance.

Before the charge, several detainees spoke to The Times across the fence to express their frustration.

"I don't know why my application for asylum has been refused when there's a war raging on in my country," one Liberian charged.

The protesters claimed that detention was driving some of the them crazy. "I wish you could go in there to see the number of people that are going insane," a 26-year old man from the Ivory Coast said, pointing to the barracks.

Others claimed they were constantly being mocked and picked upon by the soldiers guarding them.

However, the protesters all had one thing in common: none of them wants to stay in Malta and wants to find better pastures abroad.

One man held a copy of The Times, dated December 1, 2004, with a headline reading UN Says Europe Needs More Immigrants.

"We never wanted to come to Malta. We know your country is small. But your soldiers brought us in. Why have we been dumped in this place and forgotten? Is it because we're black?" a man from Congo protested.

Others said Malta was the odd country out in a Europe that was increasingly becoming aware of the hardships that African countries were facing.

A Liberian man called on Amnesty International to deal with the problem of detention in Malta, claiming that conditions inside the barracks were "horrendous".

Many asked why, with the exception of the Jesuit Refugee Service, all the NGOs were turning a blind eye to the problem.

When the soldiers started lining up the football pitch, the detainees realised what was in store for them. "Why are they holding sticks? Look at them, they're going to come to beat us up and we are only protesting peacefully. We don't even want to escape," one man shouted.

Minutes later, about six army officers approached the protestors, asking them to return to the barracks. The men refused and sat down across the goal-line as scores of soldiers approached them, beating their shields with their truncheons in rhythm. Then they charged.

At one point, up to six soldiers stood over a single floored protester while one beat him with a truncheon as a number of other detainees clutched their heads in pain as they wriggled on the ground in an attempt to protect themselves.

At noon, a loudspeaker at St Luke Hospital's emergency department announced that "a serious incident involving many people" had just taken place. The message, given in Maltese and English, said visitors who could seek assistance at other health centres should leave the department as they would have to wait for a long time before being admitted.

In the corridor leading to the ward where casualties are usually treated, three immigrants, visibly in pain and with bloodstained clothes, waited in wheelchairs outside the radiographer's room, guarded by three soldiers holding truncheons. All the soldiers wore white surgical gloves.

One of the patients, an Arab-looking man who was wincing in pain, held a bloodstained cloth to his mouth with his left hand and leaned to the right hand side of the wheelchair he was sitting on.

In no time, another soldier, an immediate superior of the guards, brought in another illegal immigrant, who was also in a wheelchair, and lined him up next to the other three.

"Come and wait near your friends," one of the soldiers, with his shirt hanging out of his trousers, told the illegal immigrant who had just arrived.

"Keep an eye on them and don't mix the papers," the superior ordered.

A soldier with his hand in plaster walked out of the casualty ward. The soldiers then had a brief conversation with a couple waiting for the radiographer close to where the illegal immigrants were waiting. "They attacked us", one of the soldiers told a woman who in turn complained it was their fault and that nobody had asked them to come to Malta.

The injured illegal immigrants were gradually admitted to the radiographer's room for X-rays. One of the soldiers took the wincing Arab into the radiographer's room and closed the door behind him.

At 12.30 p.m., about nine soldiers and a policeman entered the emergency department and walked straight into the casualty ward.

Ten minutes later, two ambulances arrived carrying another two illegal immigrants. Both were on a stretcher. One seemed to be unconscious and the other had a collar round his neck. They were admitted to the casualty ward before the other patients.

At about 1 p.m., an army truck arrived carrying 10 illegal immigrants, one of whom, a dark man with African features, shouted in pain as the soldiers helped him alight.

St Luke's Hospital's superintendent, Frank Bartolo, said 23 illegal immigrants were admitted to the emergency department.

He said doctors from other units had to be sent to the emergency department to deal with the casualties.

Sources said 11 illegal immigrants were kept in hospital overnight.

The Jesuit Refugee Service last night protested that they were not being allowed to visit the immigrants in hospital.