Marsa open centre is no miniature alternative society – Mifsud Bonnici

The Marsa open centre could not and must not become a miniature alternative society for the immigrant community, Home Affairs and Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici insisted yesterday.

Addressing an EU-funded conference on the provision of a better quality of life to residents at the centre, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the reception centre was intended to act as a temporary solution and not a permanent one. Open centres had to help residents move on at the earliest possible opportunity and difficult decisions had to be taken to ensure people “do not ‘get stuck’ in Marsa for years on end”.

“Malta’s ability to absorb migrants over the long-term remains limited, whatever we say. Our country’s geo-social realities are what they are and its limitations will not go away. This is a fact that all stakeholders need to understand and acknowledge to adopt a concrete, realistic and honest approach,” he added.

The open centre in Marsa has developed over the years into a crucial component of the immigration reception network. Thousands have gone through the centre on their journey in search of a better future.

The ministry’s director general, Mario Caruana, said most migrants came from countries much larger than Malta with different cultural backgrounds, and language barriers. “As much as the life in Malta was a challenge to these migrants so was it for the authorities and the Maltese to respond to this new reality,” he said.

Mr Caruana said that in a period of just three months Malta had this year already received 1,500 migrants, a number that normally arrived in a year, with the exception of 2010.

Responsibility for the centres initially fell under the Social Policy Ministry, a responsibility transferred to the Home Affairs Ministry in 2008. The Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers (AWAS) was then set up as a corporate body. Today, there are about 3,000 residents in reception centres.

The Foundation for Shelter and Support to Migrants was established in August 2010 with the aim of providing temporary shelter and support services to asylum seekers and people under international protection. The NGO manages the Marsa open centre on behalf of the Home Affairs Ministry.

Director Ahmed Bugri said the key to integration was education, mental and physical medical treatment and a dignified environment.

The NGO offered basic IT lessons and an internet service. English was also taught every day while French and German lessons were provided once a week. The staff was trained in first aid and room representatives would be given the same training in the future. Room representatives are responsible for communicating any problems with the NGO’s administration and to ease communication between the residents and the foundation.

On average, about 20 people are taken to Employment Training Corporation every month to register for work and gain skills.

Former Marsa open centre residents Ali Razak Dardamo and Suleiman Hassan Abdalla witnessed the centre’s transformation over the past years.

Mr Dardamo, from Sudan, arrived in Malta as a minor in 2004. He became a resident at the centre a year later and remained there until early this year when he moved out and was employed by the NGO as a care worker.

“We’re still pushing for better conditions but the activities held at the centre empower and enhance integration and helped us break the barriers between our African culture and the Maltese society,” he said.

Mr Abdalla expressed satisfaction at the improvement he saw in the attitudes of residents who were integrating and learning how to live with the community quicker.

He noted that with the installation of a new gate, residents had more “peace of mind, especially because no more drunk people wander in and disturb the peace”.