EU agency criticises Malta

Malta is one of five countries that have been criticised by a European Union agency for not giving due importance to the problem of racism and xenophobia.

The other four are Greece, Spain, Italy and Cyprus.

In its annual report for 2006 analysing racial discrimination and racial crime data, the EU agency responsible for the monitoring of racism and xenophobia (EUMC) said Malta is still not implementing two important EU directives in this field. These are the Racial Equality Directive and the Employment Equality Directive.

The country also lacks an adequate mechanism for the collection of official criminal justice data on racism and xenophobia, according to the report.

The information in the report, presented yesterday at the European Parliament in Brussels, is based on information given to the EU agency by the local Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, which acts as the agency's focal point in Malta.

Focusing on the legislative arm, the report states that although Malta is currently in the process of transposing the two EU directives related to racism, these are still in draft form.

The Ministry for Family and Social Solidarity has drafted a Bill entitled Equality Act 2005 which will transpose the remaining provisions of the Racial Equality Directive that are not yet covered by existing legislation, it said. The first reading of this draft law took place in Parliament in June, last year.

According to the report this slow legislative process is leading to other difficulties.

The report said that due to the lack of legislation there is still no specialised body for the promotion of equal treatment according to article 13 of the Racial Equality Directive even though according to the draft legislation there are plans that the Commission for the Promotion of Equality for Men and Women, set up under the Equality Act for Men and Women 2003, will be designated to act as such.

The biggest problem, however, highlighted by the report relates to the lack of data. This, according to the Vienna-based agency, is making it impossible to assess how far member states have come, in breaking the vicious circle of deprivation, prejudice and discrimination.

On the Maltese situation, the report states:

"The fact that a number of member states still do not have adequate official criminal justice data collection mechanisms in place, to record and make publicly available information on racist violence and crime, would seem to indicate that the problem is neglected through much of the EU. In the reporting period 2004-2005, no official data on racist violence and crime was available in Malta".

However, the report said that this does not mean there is no racism on the island. As an example, the report quotes a survey of employers, carried out by a Maltese university student for her dissertation, which showed that 93.9 per cent of respondents declared that they would not recruit refugees for professional/technical posts, compared to 100 per cent who would recruit refugees for unskilled jobs.

The report also quotes a survey published by The Sunday Times that shows the unwillingness of Maltese to accept non-nationals as neighbours.

"According to this survey, the level of acceptance denotes significant differences between groups. While Europeans elicit a level of rejection of five per cent, the level of rejection targeting other groups is as follows: 95.3 per cent for Palestinians; 93.7 per cent for Arabs other than Palestinians; 90 per cent for Africans; 89 per cent for Jews."

On a general note, the report concludes that migrants and ethnic minorities in the EU remain discriminated against across the EU in employment, education and housing.