The Malta Transport Authority (ADT) is to take action against a bus driver accused of racial discrimination after receiving reports yesterday of a “totally unacceptable attitude” by the individual in question, an ADT official confirmed yesterday.
The Maltese Platform of Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGDOs) yesterday condemned the incident that occurred on 17 July when a bus driver refused boarding to three women of African descent.
The bus driver is said to have turned the women away from the bus, claiming it was full when, an eye witness confirmed, there had been some 25 still-vacant seats on the vehicle.
Expressing its concern over the situation witnessed by one of its members, the Platform described the driver’s refusal to allow the women to board the public bus as a “clear incident of racial discrimination”.
Acting on complaints lodged by the eyewitness, the ADT will today set about tracing the individual driver in question, after which he will be called in for questioning over the incident.
The ADT will then take “all necessary legal and punitive action” against the bus driver.
The Platform – made up of the Centre for Faith and Justice, Inizjamed, Integra Foundation, Jesuit Refugee Service, Kare4Kenya, Koperattiva Kummerc Gust, Kopin, Moviment Graffitti, Share Foundation and Third World Group - yesterday detailed the series of events as witnessed first hand by one of its members in the early afternoon of 17 July.
The member and the three women had been queuing for bus 64. When the bus made it to the stage, most passengers were allowed to board but when the three women boarded and attempted to pay their fare they were told by the driver the bus was full and were turned away.
The witness intervened, pointing out that some 25 seats on the bus were still vacant, but was ignored and the driver signalled to other waiting passengers to alight – by which time the women of African descent had turned away from the bus and had proceeded to another bus stop to await a more humane bus driver.
The witness, reportedly uncomfortable with the situation aboard the bus, disembarked and informed the driver that a report on his actions would be filed. Boarding the next bus that came along, the witness encountered the three women previously denied boarding and, on discussing the incident, discovered they were actually Swiss nationals. One was studying in Malta for two months while the other two were friends who had come to visit her.
“The National Platform of Maltese NGDOs would like to stress that everybody in Malta should live free of any racial, religious or gender-based discrimination,” the Platform stated yesterday. “Incidents such as the above cast shame on our country.”