The Commissioner for Children, Pauline Miceli, has confirmed that no action can be taken by the police over a video showing a group of children racially abusing an African worker, but said the police could have admonished the parents.

The video in question shows a group of boys, aged around 12, shouting racial slurs at the coloured man on the Birzebbuga promenade. It was reportedly shot last summer but only surfaced on social media this week. The boys can be heard screaming “Balalu!” and “Muslim!” at the man, who was wearing a yellow vest. A number of people can be seen walking by without intervening.

The person who filmed the incident told Lovin Malta that the man was clearly trying to escape, but the children kept following him and taunting him. He said he showed the video clip to the police but was told nothing could be done because the aggressors were minors. He also insisted that this was not the first time incident of its kind.

Replying to questions by The Malta Independent, Miceli confirmed that “unfortunately no action can be taken against the children directly due to them being under 14 yrs.”

However, the police could have taken the parents to task and admonished them for their children’s behaviour, she added.

Thanking this newspaper for alerting her office to the video, Commissioner Miceli said her office would be flagging the video as inappropriate and reporting it directly to Youtube.

Start at