The Common European Asylum System

The move towards a common asylum policy will include a basic set of commonly agreed principles as regards eligibility to refugee status and procedures of asylum. Last year, the EU approved a first law in this direction, which states that in situations of mass influx of displaced persons, these persons should be given immediate and temporary protection for a maximum period of two years.

Malta is a party to the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951) and its Protocol (1967). The Refugees Act has now also come into force, which caters for a refugee commissioner, a refugees appeals board and a reception centre for asylum seekers.