An EU-wide study released by the British Council and the Migration Policy Group of the UK on the way EU member states treat migrants has placed Malta in 23rd position in a 28-country migrants' rights scoreboard.

According to the study, "migrants in Malta are explicitly exposed to nationality discrimination" and the Maltese are "consistently the least supportive of migrants' rights in the EU-27".

Known as the Migrant Integration Policy Index (Mipex), the study aims to improve migrant integration policies in Europe by providing objective and comparable data for debate.

It measures policies to integrate migrants in all the EU member states - apart from Bulgaria and Romania - and three non-EU countries.

It uses over 130 policy indicators to build a multi-dimensional picture of migrants' opportunities to participate in society.

The index covers six policy areas that shape a migrant's journey to full citizenship: Long-term residence, labour market status, family reunion, political participation, access to nationality and anti-discrimination.

Malta does not fare badly in all the areas. In certain aspects, the island has among the best practices in the EU but overall it is not a migrants' place.

"Malta's strongest policy areas are family reunion and long-term residence.

"Access to nationality ranks 24th out of the 28 Mipex countries. Only Latvia scores worse than Malta on both labour market access and anti-discrimination.

"Political participation is the lowest-scoring strand for Malta, as for several other European countries."

The study found that, last year, Malta had 1,913 legal migrants which are not citizens of the EU. It also noted that, according to the government, during 2005, about the same number came to Malta illegally.

Some improvements in the islands' integration policy were noted.

"Malta recently introduced integration policies, largely targeted at refugees.

"The government did most on these issues when required to transpose EU directives on anti-discrimination and long-term residence," the study says. Family reunion is the strongest Maltese area.

"Although Malta has not transposed the EU directive on family reunion as of March 1, 2007, its policies score slightly favourably.

"Sponsors are forced to wait for two years or more but, once eligible, they are allowed to reunite with many family members. The conditions for acquisition are the third best in the EU."

On the other hand, Malta is criticised for its tough nationality access.

"The 2000 Maltese Citizenship Act limits naturalisation to children and descendents of those who are, were, or became Maltese citizens.

"Without that connection, migrants can only naturalise if the government, under total discretion, decided they are eligible, based on humanitarian grounds.

"In such cases, migrants and stateless people must have lived legally in Malta for five years.

"The conditions for acquisition allow authorities to assess whether the few migrants who qualify for Maltese citizenship have an 'adequate' knowledge of English or Maltese, a 'good character', and would be a 'suitable citizen of Malta'."

Apart from the almost impossible qualification for citizenship, the British Council report describes Malta as an intolerant place for migrants.

Quoting a Eurobarometer survey, the study describes Malta as just one of four EU countries where only a minority thinks ethnic diversity enriches the national culture.

"The Maltese are the most supportive in the EU of deporting all legally-established third-country nationals, especially if they are unemployed.

"Over two-thirds of the Maltese believe ethnic discrimination is fairly widespread and the majority thinks that it got worse between 2001 and 2006."

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