On the same day and in the same hours when Malta was savouring the glory of becoming the EU president (even though it has not yet begun), a man was found dead under a bridge in Marsa. The news story made it to TVM and to this paper as well as In-Nazzjon, which gave extensive details. The other websites and newspapers did not mention it.
According to In-Nazzjon, the dead man had been living and sleeping under the Marsa bridge for quite some time. His name was Mohamed Haji Abdulwahid Nur, known as Haj, 37 years old from Somalia.
He arrived in Malta in 2004 and for around six years worked, thus living off his earnings. Then he started having mental problems and for a time was a resident of Mount Carmel Hospital.
After he came out of Mount Carmel, there were some efforts at trying to get him to live in a community home, but he seemed to prefer to live under the bridge.
He also spent some time in jail following theft from cars, acts of aggression and also using a firearm probably to get some food for himself.
An autopsy is to be held but it would seem it will conclude the Somali dies from natural causes, from cold. That can be confirmed by the autopsy.
Whatever the reason, and also considering the man seems to have refused alternative accommodation, his death is an indictment. The motorcade taking Mr Scultz to the airport most probably passed by the place where the Somali lay dead. The country now elevated to the presidency of the Union is also a country where single dejected migrants can die of cold.
This is not the first time that we have heard of people living in the open. We heard of migrants who lived in concrete tubes at Hal Far. A recent story told of two Maltese persons living in a car. We ask: how many people are sleeping rough in today’s Malta? Do the authorities know how many are there? What efforts are being made to get them into some sort of shelter on these cold winter nights?
This is a somewhat gray area but is there any sort of kitchen for these vagrants offering some hot soup and the like, for free? We seem to expect anything and everything from the government, but what about other organisations, such as the church, the NGOs, etc? In other countries, from Greece to Egypt, the religious organisations offer free kitchens to the poor but we do not seem to have heard anything like this in Malta. We also seem to rely a lot on the Community Chest Fund but this in no way displaces the space for personal and group initiative.
In a country and in an age where we rely on government and para-government institutions, we seriously risk downgrading private and personal initiative. We also live in an age where many of our citizens are thinking and speaking racist slogans and beliefs. The dead Somali may have suffered from this ostracism many times in the years he spent here. And even when he was dead, many may have thought racist thoughts that he should never have come here. In the days to Christmas we may pause to reflect how Jesus Christ too began life as a migrant, having nowhere to live. While we light up our houses with electric lights and tinsel, a migrant who had nowhere to live lay dead under a bridge.