The National Action Plan against Racism and Xenophobia (NAPRAX), the first-ever in Malta, has been issued for public consultation.

This plan falls under the remit of Parliamentary Secretary for Equality and Reforms Rosianne Cutajar.

"No one is born hating that which is different from him. It is taught, not academically but through stereotypes and prejudice we carry with us in life. It is these prejudices that we had to address and eradicate," Cutajar said while addressing a press conference Friday afternoon.

She explained that this plan is the first step the government is taking in this regard, which is meant to deliver a message that Malta will not accept this kind of discrimination while noting that it requires a collective effort. It has been opened for public consultation.

The final document is planned to be presented by the end of the year.

 "We want to create a Maltese society that is proud of its character, but also the new elements that complement it," Cutajar said, pointing out that the simplest of day-to-day actions and interactions need to be addressed.

"Because of our strategic position, we have had an influx of foreigners and it came as a shock, but we cannot try to avoid these changes. Rather, they have to be addressed as the society we have today is not like the one we had 10 years ago."

Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Communities Alex Muscat agreed with Cutajar's ideology, saying that that free movement of people is something our forefathers could only dream of.

He noted that the new opportunities created by the government have attracted a lot of foreigners to the country and, currently, Malta has 99,000 people who are not citizens, but reside in it.

"They give their contribution to Malta's economy," Muscat said. 47,000 of the foreigners in Malta come from third countries, he said, adding that they are working in Malta and providing a service while also paying taxes."

Foreign Affairs Minister Evarist Bartolo said that without diversity, "we would be living in a sad world, despite the hurdles we may come across."

He believes that the biggest challenge of all is finding how to love one's country without it costing the relationships people have with people from other countries.

EU Commissioner Helena Dalli stressed the importance of making anti-racism the norm. "This plan is completely anti-racism. Saying that we are not racist is not enough, we all have to be anti-racism," she explained. "We have a lot of laws on racism in the EU, but the situation is still prevalent, so we have to understand what is going wrong and invest in recourses for it."

This anti-racism perspective should be present in the housing, education and employment sectors and also in legal and enforcement sectors. "Additionally, the misinformation that social media has brought about must also be addressed."

She thanked Malta for being the first member state to tackle this issue, as this is a situation of both economical and moral value.