Marsa open centre to get makeover

By the end of the year, the Marsa Open Centre will have received a complete makeover with the façade being embellished, new medical services being introduced and a library opened, among other improvements, all aimed at speeding up the integration of the migrants hosted there.

The project is a first for Fondazzjoni Suret il-Bniedem, which obtained funds from the European Refugee Fund II to be able to embark on the large-scale revamp of the place, an unused, run-down school before hosting illegal immigrants.

The money will be spent on the upgrade of the education centre, which will now have a library and 10 computers, and on the refurbishment of one of the kitchens, which was in a bad state. The tables and chairs were hardly usable and the electrical supply was considered unsafe. The kitchen has now been stripped, extended and given a new, open plan layout.

More significantly, a clinic has been built in order to provide residents with medical care three times a week.

The project will also help the open centre's residents to find affordable accommodation and integrate refugees and asylum seekers into Maltese society.

This is the first phase of a full-scale plan of improvement for the Marsa open centre. Fondazzjoni Suret il-Bniedem intends to continue to upgrade the infrastructure and services at the centre in the coming years.