“Abbiamo alzato la posta, ci siamo giocati tutto, anche il futuro dei nostri figli. E adesso finalmente ci godiamo quello che ci spetta.”
from “Il Capitale Umano”, Paolo Virzi
A migrant worker falls from the height of two storeys while working on a construction site. Someone, probably the migrant worker’s employer, puts him in the car with a promise to take him to hospital. Instead of taking him to hospital he dumps the injured worker on the side of the road and leaves him there unassisted and in pain. It takes some good willing passers by to stop and assist the desperate and injured man and call an ambulance.
There are scarcely any words that can describe this horrible act that took place in Malta today, in September 2021. It exposes the full horror of the exploitation of migrant workers on the island and particularly the cold-blooded calculations of the construction industry when dealing with human lives. The 32 year old Ghanaian feared prison almost more than the physical pain that he was surely enduring. He was aware of his precarious situation in which he found himself – that same precarious situation was at the root of the cold calculation of his employer who opted to dump him on the road side.
The construction sector’s rabid hunger for development – crystallised in Joseph Portelli’s prophetic “hundred more years” words during an interview – is completely insensitive to the human damage that it causes.
That damage is quantifiable first of all in the loss of quality of life that the irrational and corrupt spread of construction is causing to the nation as a whole. Malta, Gozo and Comino are gradually being suffocated under a blanket of unbridled, irrational and destructive development. The warnings had been made only a week ago – to the point that the Prime Minister felt it necessary to “reassure” the construction sector after even one of his own had pointed an accusatory finger in their direction.
Quality of life is at dangerous low levels on the island of milk and honey. There is little respite from the continuous onslaught that is aided and abetted by weak or powerless institutions and a by the network of compromised politicians.
The damage is quantifiable even further in the loss of lives by people who become collateral damage of the unregulated and irresponsible frenzy that is around us. The fear of being buried alive is a real possibility that is only a minor blip on the dark register of constructor’s accounts. Death becomes a tiny cost to bear in the race to construct the new Babylon.
Health and safety standards, Employment standards, Building Regulations. They are all dependent on the will to enforce. Such a will is absent and there can be little hope for a nation gearing up for an election where politicians are eager to capitalise on the investments made by their construction lobby masters (“I meet them daily to facilitate my plans”).
Employment conditions for non-EU workers are atrociously balanced in favour of the Employing market. Short-term resident permits and contracts leave employees at the mercy of their employers who are aided by laws drafted in their favour. The government’s role in this situation is not to be understimated.
The same government that is dishing out millions of Euros on the eve of an election that were received on the basis of a residency scheme for the rich shows us how little it values human capital elsewhere. Responsibility lies squarely with our politicians in this respect.
“Avete scommesso sulla rovina di questo paese. E avete vinto.”
from Il Capitale Umano, Paolo Virzi
