A Council of Europe report into human trafficking has thrown a spotlight on "weak" enforcement of labour laws for employment agencies and high-risk sectors.  It called on Malta to review legislation covering migrant workers, strengthen oversight of private employment agencies, and make reporting rogue employers safer and more effective.

The report also calls on the authorities to confiscate assets from human traffickers to fund compensation payouts for victims, noting that no victims have received compensation over the past five years.  Excessively lengthy court proceedings do not help and discourage victims from filing a police report.

While the CoE acknowledged some legal changes ensuring a minimum wage for platform workers and a 2024 law requiring temping agencies to be registered, the report still noted that enforcement remains insufficient.

The UN estimates that 6.4 million people were living in modern slavery in Europe and Central Asia on any given day in 2021. The region had the second highest prevalence in the world, with 6.9 per thousand people, of which 4.4 per 1,000 were forced labourers and 2.5 per 1,000 were forced marriages.  The overall slavery figures ranged from 0.5-1.0 per 1,000 in the Nordic countries through 4.2 in the Czech Republic to 8.0 in Cyprus.  

An ILO report puts the total number of forced labourers in the EU at 880,000.  Some 30 percent of them are estimated to be victims of forced sexual exploitation, while the rest are victims of forced labour exploitation. Women constitute the clear majority of victims (58%).

I couldn't find any figures for Malta, but the problem certainly exists.  Even in 2019, when the number of migrants was considerably less than today's, the CEO of the Foundation for Social Services had said we have one. What makes foreign workers particularly vulnerable to modern slavery are inequality, lack of basic needs, and disenfranchisement.

It is unconscionable that we should build our economic progress on modern slavery.  The fact that migrants come here because they earn a higher salary than in their home countries does not entitle us to exploit them and disregard their human dignity.   Both Pope Francis and Pope Leo have unreservedly condemned modern slavery as a "crime against humanity," while Francis had described it as "an open wound on the body of contemporary society."

Judge Lawrence Mintoff recently expressed "disgust" at the way foreign workers are getting stuck in the bureaucratic processes of two government agencies.  His court slammed them over administrative failures and lack of transparency when ruling in a case filed by a third country national. 

The vile trade in slavery is nothing new. The Knights of Malta and various Maltese corsairs practised the slave trade between 1530 and 1798.  Grand Masters Verdala and Wignacourt, assisted by the likes of the corsair Michele da Malta, were instrumental in making slavery a major pillar of the Maltese economy.  Napoleon abolished the practice, but piracy remained dormant until it got a second lease of life this century.  Its modern manifestations are software piracy, unauthorised television streaming, and forced labour.

Not just fines

Local Enforcement wardens in Malta are probably among the most vilified workers in Malta.  Every time we are fined for our motoring offences, we fly into a rage and offend them, though most of us do that silently.  It does not matter that, more often than not, they are right.

In reality, not all wardens are "ogres."  Every now and then, news arrives of some good deed they have done.  This was the case recently, when two of them showed some quick thinking and helped rescue an eight-month-old baby who was trapped inside a locked car in Lija.  The mother had just secured her baby in a car seat and shut the door, at which point the vehicle automatically locked itself with the keys still inside.

Soaring temperatures heated the black vehicle rapidly, such that the situation quickly became a cause for concern.  The mother was lucky that two LESA officers were nearby.  She asked for their help and they rushed to assist. One of the officers broke a car window to gain access, allowing the mother to unlock the vehicle and safely retrieve her child before the situation escalated further.

Doing a good deed is admirable.  It also makes the one who does it feel good and possibly even enhance his reputation.  Yet, many of us are surprisingly hesitant to boast when we do a good turn. Jerry Richardson of the Department of Psychology at Cornell University, who led two studies among 400 participants, found that people believe that talking about their own good deeds will make them feel worse, possibly even be embarrassed.

Why does talking about good deeds make us apprehensive?  Richardson and his co-researchers suggest that there's a societal convention that good deeds are meant to be selfless   ̶   sharing them raises suspicions that they were done to receive praise or improve social status. Once that doubt enters the picture, the 'warm glow' of helping others can easily be spoiled   ̶   especially on social media, where audiences are more cynical.

It is a pity because, perhaps more so than at any other point in history, we are all living a delicate tension between hope and helplessness.  Good and evil abound.  Oftentimes, we hover helplessly somewhere on the spectrum between misanthropy and love for humanity.

The point can become philosophical.  I remember that when Mother Teresa of Calcutta was made a saint, there were some people who suggested that she may have been an intrinsically self-serving person despite all of her good deeds.  After all, they said, didn't she do good deeds for her own satisfaction?  Wasn't the world-wide recognition she obtained inherently selfish?  Thank God, we aren't all sceptics.   

Psychologists have an explanation as to why doing good makes us feel better, even if we do not boast about it.  It is called "helper's high," short for the rush of positive emotions people feel after doing something kind for others.  The feeling is due to the release of endorphins, the body's natural "feel-good" chemicals, leading to sensations of euphoria and well-being.

On the occasion of the baby's rescue, as in many other similar cases, many rushed to the social media to condemn the mother for her "carelessness," piling on feelings of guilt she already had, even though the incident was fortuitous.  Feeling empathy seems to be too difficult for a considerable number of people to understand.  They prefer to censor and be sanctimonious.

Living with inflation

Millions of people all over the world are having to live with inflation.  Every time that we think that we're out of the woods, the damned phenomenon comes back with a vengeance.  It is proving so persistent that, even if the Gulf conflict ends soon, the OECD expects global inflation to rise to 4.0% this year, up from 3.4% in 2025.

A cocktail of higher energy costs, rising industrial production costs, supply-chain disruptions, and increasing fertiliser prices are pushing prices upwards.  This is forcing major central banks to manage a difficult balancing act between supporting economic growth through lower interest rates and containing inflation through tighter monetary policy.

It's not just inflation.  Kristalina Georgieva, the International Monetary Fund's Managing Director, has said that shocks have become more frequent.  Previously, crises tended to remain mostly confined to a country or a region; now they propagate rapidly through globally interconnected systems and networks.  This is the case whether the crises are economic, financial, environmental, or health.

Being prepared for such crises has become as important as knowing what to do when they hit you.  It's a huge challenge, one that needs to be an integral part of policymaking by all parties concerned - the government, industry, and the population.

A Lobster Experience.  The other week, a lady posted on Facebook that, while shopping at a supermarket in Swieqi, she witnessed a live lobster being taken out of an aquarium and killed in boiling water in full view of the customers. She said that her son was overwhelmed by the shock of the lobster being killed in such a cruel way. The experience affected him so deeply that he cried for several days afterwards and could not stop thinking about it.

Of course, the post quickly triggered a deluge of comments.  Among other things, the mother and her son were called "snowflakes."  After all, some people said, we kill all sorts of animals to eat them.  We do, but the unnecessary suffering of any living creature should concern us all. Boiling a lobster is not the only way to kill it.  It can be done by a swift mechanical stunning or electrocution.  Some countries have banned the practice of boiling them. 

Ok, the "scream" bit is a myth   ̶   the whistling or hissing sound we hear during boiling is simply trapped steam and air escaping the shell.  But the fact is that lobsters are extremely sensitive animals. They can detect temperature shifts as small as one degree - which is partly why they migrate some 160 kilometres every year to find the perfect breeding ground for their fragile young. This certainly puts death in a scalding pot into perspective.

Witnessing or being forced to commit animal abuse can cause psychological trauma. Studies show that children who are exposed to animal cruelty are more likely to suffer from emotional dysfunction and self-harm. Unsuspecting shoppers who simply go to buy their groceries can also be affected.

The Minister for animal care should ban the practice of killing lobsters through boiling.

Quote of the week

"I believe democracy is failing not because voters reject women, or because women lack the competence to serve, but because the system that determines who gets to compete, seen and supported, was never built with equality in mind." (President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca)