A Migrants' Network for Equality has been set up by migrants in Malta to give them a unified voice.

Abshir Abdala, a Somali man who is one of the founders, said the first meeting involving a number of migrants was held in March after a migrant committed suicide.

"For a long time, many of us have felt the need to do something about our situation here, but before anything could be done, we needed to organise ourselves. While a lot is being said about immigration in Malta, the voice of the migrants has been missing."

He said the network includes migrant communities from Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Ghana, Niger, Mali, Guinea Bissao, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Sierra Leone.

"We are not trying to organise ourselves against the Maltese. This is not a form of opposition to the Maltese," he added.

Mr Abdala said the network in its first action had written to the Minister of Home Affairs calling for a reopening of debate on the rights of persons enjoying humanitarian protection to travel, live and work in the EU. The network also called for the granting of residence permits to individuals whose asylum applications were refused but who had been living and working regularly here for a number of years, irrespective of their status.

Mr Abdala said they were also calling on the authorities to fight racism, which was particularly blatant on the buses and at entertainment outlets.

They also suggested that migrants who have been working for two years and have made at least 50 social security contributions should be given the right for unemployment benefit as is the case with the Maltese.

The migrants also drew attention to miserable conditions in open centres, discrimination and the fact hat many of them were discouraged to go out to work because that meant that they would have to vacate the open centres, and then they had nowhere to go. Furthermore they had no safety net once they became unemployed.

A meeting with the minister as also requested.

The letter to the minister was also signed by 12 local NGOs.

Andre' Callus, speaking on behalf of the NGOs, said the migrants felt they could actively contribute to the debate on migration.

23 University academics also signed the migrants' letter to the minister.

See migrants letter in pdf below.