The MCAST CEO has denied the claims of an Ethiopian student who claimed that he has suffered racist abuse by students and lecturers at the college.

Stephen Cachia was replying to allegations made by Mesfen Tereraga, in the wake of the assault last week of Hungarian national Daboma Jack.

Mr Cachia said:  “I refer to the article published on The Malta Independent of the 9 July, 2015. I would like to point out that I have investigated the allegations made by the student concerned after the student was identified in the said article and can categorically deny that he is being subject to any racist abuse at MCAST.”

“It is also completely untrue that the Director of the Institute where he attends failed to take action with regards to any racist incidents reported to him. On the contrary, staff members of the Institute as well as other MCAST support staff members have worked hard to support and help the student to integrate as much as possible into the course and Institute he attends.”

“Professional ethics and data protection obligations prevent me from giving further details about this student which would place the allegations being made into a completely different perspective. As I have already said, MCAST prides itself in being an inclusive institution and we have worked hard to integrate immigrant students in as smooth a manner as possible.”

“Under no circumstances will we allow racism to raise its head at MCAST and will take strong action if necessary. However, it is completely unfair on our staff and our students that they are tarnished in this manner by false allegations printed on the front page of a national newspaper, particularly when our staff members have worked hard to integrate the student concerned within our institution.”

Racism - we are pushed out of police stations