More refugee repatriation

A further group of 250 refugees from Malta would be relocated to other countries by the end of November, Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici told the House Social Affairs Committee yesterday. A number of refugees had left Malta before July.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici, who was giving a detailed update on illegal immigration, revealed that the number of refugees leaving Malta to the US and other countries had declined during the Libyan conflict and he expressed the hope that the situation would be better now that the US government had appointed a new ambassador to Malta.

The minister said that 1,535 migrants – of which 268 were women and 125 children – had crossed over from Libya since the beginning of the year. Only five were Libyan.

The large majority of these migrants, 411, came from Somalia, 288 from Eritrea while 240 were from Nigeria. Another 103 came from Ethiopia.

Sixty per cent of those applying for asylum status had been granted refugee or humanitarian status. The UNHCR had received 1,695 applications this year. Nearly all had been processed with Nigerian irregular immigrants not granted humanitarian status.

There were 105 migrants who had been repatriated and another 22 who went back home on the assisted voluntary return programme.

There were 682 immigrants in detention centres while another 2,147 lived in open centres. These were living in better conditions than before because the centres were upgraded last year.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said it was the government’s policy to encourage these migrants to fend on their own and find work while still living here. Most of the migrants wanted to settle in other countries.

During the Tunisian crisis and the Libyan conflict no less than 60,000 irregular immigrants crossed the central Mediterranean. Malta only received migrants from Libya. Indications early in the Libyan conflict were that 100,000 were to cross from Libya to Europe. Malta therefore had to set up its own contingency plan. Although the situation was quiet, one had to be vigilant and monitor developments. The situation had showed a significant decrease since the fall of Tripoli to the transition government forces with international reports indicating that the crossings were pushed forward by the Gaddafi regime.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said in the coming weeks he would be meeting the Slovak and Austrian Home Affairs Ministers to discuss cooperation on immigration.

Armed Forces and Police personnel were in Greece to gain experience on irregular immigration operations. Before the conflict, talks had been held with the Nigerian and Ghanaian ambassadors in Libya on immigration issues. These would hopefully resume once the situation in Libya stabilises. Efforts were being made to start talks with the authorities in Mali, Togo, Gambia and the Ivory Coast.

‘Illegal migration a priority in EU ­meetings’

The Minister spoke about the establishment of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in Malta with the EU spending €2.4 million in refurbishing part of the building occupied by Transport Malta. EASO, which started its operation in June, would employ 25 people by the end of the year and recruitment had already started in the EU member states.

Illegal immigration remained a priority in EU meetings with the message being that those entering EU countries had to do so through legal channels. Malta had not received immigrants with open arms but had applied established rules. Malta had aligned itself with EU directives on the issue of qualified workers and on criminal proceedings against illegal employment.

The Home Affairs Minister said Malta did not participate in Frontex operations since the beginning of the Libyan conflict because a number of conditions by Malta for their operations had not been met. Frontex did not yet reach certain aims as regards repatriation.

The Melita project within Frontex aimed at identifying better persons from third countries, acquiring travel documents and organising repatriation flights.

He said that Armed Forces, Police and Civil Protection personnel had shown a great sense of duty also on the seas and made Malta proud. The maritime patrol aircraft helped Maltese patrols to be on the scene earlier than before because they no longer depended on information from other countries.