Easier work permit system for migrants needed

An easier system is needed for the granting of work permits for migrants, even when the migrants would be working for a day or a few days, Mgr Philip Calleja, director of the Emigrants Commission, has insisted.

Earlier this week the GRTU also called for regularisation of the current “chaotic” employment system.

It said employers go to Marsa early in the morning, pick up the number of migrants they need and pay each individual migrant cash plus provision of food and drink. The GRTU said a number of its members from the construction, repair, and especially from the waste sectors “depend” on the employment of migrants. It therefore proposed a system based on a temporarily casual work relationship.

Mgr Calleja said that while migrants granted temporary humanitarian protection can themselves apply for a work permit, asylum seekers (those who have not yet been granted protection) need to have an employer who would sign the work permit application for them. It is the latter which is causing most problems and abuse.

“Those workers who are picked up from Marsa every day need the protection afforded by a work permit, especially in case they are injured. The workers and the employers must pay their share for such protection. It is not fair to have people injured at work and not receiving any compensation at all, because they hold no work permit. One worker lost his leg while working, another suffered brain injuries and was in a coma for a long time,” Mr Calleja said.

“We need a formula to ensure that workers, whether working for a day, a week, or more, will be able to quickly apply for a work permit. And we need to ensure that the workers use that permit,” he said.

Mr Calleja said that he had noted a decrease in cases of exploitation of migrant workers, such as when they are over-worked and under-paid.

He attributed that to increased awareness by employers following action and warnings by the authorities and the commission itself. More such action was need to discourage what exploitation still existed, Mgr Calleja said.