An EU agency has given Malta high marks for the way it observes the rights of illegal immigrants who claim asylum status.
Two reports on the situation in the EU issued by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) showed that Malta made big strides ahead over the past years “as it has become accustomed to the EU’s asylum procedures”, an agency official said.
The reports are based on interviews carried out with asylum seekers. In Malta, interviews were conducted with 36 asylum seekers whose experience shows that their fundamental right to claim asylum status was fully observed. They registered no specific complaints, the FRA said.
Two of the most difficult obstacles faced by asylum seekers are addressed in the reports: access to effective remedies when applying for asylum and once a decision is made and the right to information about the asylum process. On both counts, Malta is taking all the necessary measures to make the process as easy, straightforward and fast as possible, according to the reports.
Indeed, the island was among the top ranked member states, together with France, Germany and Poland, when it came to the right of asylum seekers to be given a written explanation about the decision.
Although there were complaints that, sometimes, the explanation was not given in a language that could be understood, this only happened rarely and by mistake and the issue was rectified immediately through the intervention of the authorities or the Jesuit Refugee Service, the reports say.
It was also found to be easy for asylum seekers to have access to a lawyer’s free services, which they would have heard about through acquaintances and information passed on by colleagues.
Malta has also made a lot of progress in fulfilling its duty to provide information about asylum procedures to prospective asylum seekers since the duty was passed on to the Commission for Refugees in mid-2009. Leaflets in 10 languages are provided to all illegal immigrants reaching the island and they are also shown videos on how to apply.
The studies point out that this is not the case in some other EU member states, with Greece, Cyprus and other Eastern EU countries having a poor record. On the other hand, Germany provides leaflets in 59 languages.
The agency also found that decision rates on asylum claims across the EU were still very uneven. For example, Malta was found to be one of the most “generous” countries with Somali applicants, who constituted the largest chunk of asylum applications filed last year. They accounted for 1,570 applications, of which 1,445 were granted positive decisions.
This means that a Somali applicant in Malta had a 92 per cent chance of receiving asylum approval, a rate that fell to just 3.7 per cent in Greece and 9.1 per cent in Spain. On the other hand, in Italy the success rate for Somalis was 95 per cent.
The agency remarked that substantial differences still existed between asylum procedures in the 27 EU member states, leading to an uneven playing field. FRA director Morten Kjaerum said the procedures needed to be further improved and harmonised, describing a fair asylum procedure as one where applicants knew their rights and duties.