Repubblika has expressed its disgust and condemnation of PN MP Justin Schembri’s recent comments stating that Malta has become "full of filth, neglect, and Indians".

“Justin Schembri’s comments are an explicit, discriminatory and racist threat,” the NGO said in a statement.

Schembri commented online under a One News Facebook post that “Everywhere is a dump. The government has turned Malta into a dump. Full of filth, neglect, and Indians. And whoever says I am lying, look around you.”

The NGO said Tuesday that the Nationalist Party’s Shadow Minister for Education has stripped people of their human dignity through this objectifying statement. Repubblika added that through this comment, Schembri has pigeonholed these people into a category with other soulless objects.

Repubblika remarked that had this comment come from a private individual, it would be “an ignorant comment, fuelled by hatred and racial prejudice.” However, coming from an aspiring politician, these words “are an explicit, discriminatory and racist threat.”

Repubblika has also stated that such comments have no justification behind them, despite what Schembri had previously insisted to journalists.

“It is not justified,” the NGO said, “Racism and those who embrace it have no legitimate place in politics in a democracy. We condemn this behaviour without reservation.”