Gafa replies to Cassola: have you ever heard of Operation Sophia?
Former OPM employee Neville Gafa has replied to independent candidate Arnold Cassola after the latter wrote to the International Criminal Court (ICC) asking them to investigate him for preventing asylum seekers from leaving Libya.
According to Cassola, this led to the violation of basic human rights and a serious breach of international law.
In a reply on Facebook, Gafa asked Cassola whether he had ever heard of Operation Sophia. “Do you know what the purpose of Operation Sophia was?” he wrote.
“Operation Sophia was set up in 2015 in order to fight peoplesmuggling across the Mediterranean.
“Just a few days ago, EU foreign affairs ministers agreed to launch a new naval operation in the Central Mediterranean, with the old mission that was supposed to fulfil that brief, i.e. Operation Sophia, to be closed down.
“Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat already declared that ‘if the new naval operation creates a ‘pull factor’, that is to say the ships attract migrants, the mission will be stopped.’”
He asked Cassola what his position would be if the EU were to stop the new naval operation
“Will you be writing to the International Criminal Court to investigate Joseph Borrell for preventing asylum seekers from leaving Libya?
“You may wish to note that Austria, supported by Hungary, had led opposition to reviving Operation Sophia, fearing it could reactivate a rescue fleet that would end up ferrying migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.
“Will you be writing to the International Criminal Court to investigate Austria and Hungary accordingly?
“As a Maltese citizen, would you have felt comfortable if all those thousands of migrants had reached Maltese shores?
“What position would you have taken in such circumstances? “Malta l-ewwel u qabel kollox,” Gafa concludes.