‘Allow migrants to reunite with their families’
Immigrants who have lived in Malta for five years should be allowed to bring their families to join them, according to the head of the Emigrants’ Commission.
Mgr Philip Calleja yesterday said it would be “a purely humanitarian act” to help families separated by distance and circumstances unite.
In a personal note titled My Wish List, which was circulated to the media yesterday, Mgr Calleja listed a number of conditions that would have to be satisfied before the family would be allowed to reunite.
Apart from having lived in Malta for five years, the migrant would have had to be working with a permit for three years and be able to guarantee proper accommodation for his relatives.
Mgr Calleja said many migrants were separated from their wives and children for years and the situation was such that nobody knew how long it would persist.
He said migrants with a police permit should be able to have a work permit and enjoy the same benefits as Maltese employees.
Casting a wider net on the issues migrants faced, Mgr Calleja said it did not make sense for the state to refuse to register babies born at sea because they were not on Maltese territory.
He recalled that the UN human rights convention urged states to “identify and remove physical, administrative and any other barriers that impede access to birth registration.”
Birth registration, he added, did not give the child any rights.
Mgr Calleja said there were cases of children born at sea who could not be registered in their mother’s home country nor in the mother’s last country of residence.
“Birth registration, even belated, will be a humanitarian act,” he insisted.
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Colin Stanley
Aug 12th 2012, 17:35
when we mention family what do we mean. wife- husband,children,brothers,sisters, parents, grandparents, where does it stop.?
Dennis Zammit
Aug 12th 2012, 07:42
Mgr Calleja seems far away from the thinking of many Maltese. Without being seen as a racist, which I am not, I presume that it would be much easier and less painful if the migrants are helped, even by the EU and local Govt., to reunite with their families in their own habitat . . . their country . . . closer to ALL their families and relatives.
carlos ellul
Aug 11th 2012, 20:28
Weren't we told that these people are escaping from persecution? How can we get immigrants out of an alleged war zone? Or are we being taken for a ride and these immigrants are actually living in a safe place?
Kurt Waschnig
Aug 11th 2012, 19:12
I agree fully with Mgr Philip Calleja that immigrants who have lived in Malta for five years should be allowed to bring their families to join them.
It is natural that families should live together and if some conditions apart from having lived in Malta for five years, the migrant would have had to be working with a permit for three years and be able to guarantee proper accommodation for his relatives are fulfilled there cannot be any hindrance
that the other members of the family come to Malta and settle down.
It is natural that families live together and migrants who live and work in Malta and pay taxes should have that legal right.
Mgr Calleja is right when he says “many migrants were separated from their wives and children for years and the situation was such that nobody knew how long it would persist.”
Children have the right to live with their parents to have a happy childhood and to get raised by both.
And indeed migrants with a police permit should be able to have a work permit and enjoy the same benefits as Maltese employees.
Mgr Philip Calleja continue with your good work.
Best regards
Kurt Waschnig Oldenburg Germany
e-mail: oldenburg1952@yahoo.de
Tony Camilleri
Aug 11th 2012, 23:11
Kurt Waschnig how about taking them to your country Germany Kurt?
Eric Soames
Aug 12th 2012, 01:45
Kurt Waschnig: I've seen your irrational pablum [look it up] on these pages before. How dare you, sir, presume to dictate to a tiny nation what it should and should not do! Nobody made these people uproot themselves and abandon their countries, and if the reality is not to their liking, well, tough. They can go back and be real men among their own. Rebuild their homeland and create a future for the families they now claim to be missing.
Kurt Waschnig
Aug 11th 2012, 18:55
I agree fully with Mgr Philip Calleja that immigrants who have lived in Malta for five years should be allowed to bring their families to join them.
It is natural that families should live together and if some conditions apart from having lived in Malta for five years, the migrant would have had to be working with a permit for three years and be able to guarantee proper accommodation for his relatives are fulfilled there cannot be any hindrance
that the other members of the family come to Malta and settle down.
It is natural that families live together and migrants who live and work in Malta and pay taxes should have that legal right.
Mgr Calleja is right when he says “many migrants were separated from their wives and children for years and the situation was such that nobody knew how long it would persist.”
Children have the right to live with their parents to have a happy childhood and to get raised by both.
And indeed migrants with a police permit should be able to have a work permit and enjoy the same benefits as Maltese employees.
Mgr Philip Calleja continue with your good work.
Best regards
Kurt Waschnig Oldenburg Germany
e-mail: oldenburg1952@yahoo.de
Mr Clayton Mangion
Aug 11th 2012, 16:52
I cant believe the Maltese people stay quiet and just grumble ! Its our country not GONZI PN Or UN ! WE SHOULD DECIDE !
S.M. Cuschieri
Aug 11th 2012, 15:21
\what????? Bring more of them over?????? Why don't we just leave our country and allow them free reign? X'affarijiet dawn!!!
M Grech
Aug 11th 2012, 17:58
true
Charles Grixti
Aug 11th 2012, 14:43
I was expecting this. It is simply 'phase 2' of the overall plan to change the demographic of Malta to reflect the overall policy of Multiculturalism and Islamization project currently underway in all of the Western countries of the world. Tiny Malta was not only not spared but singled out for special treatment. Our leaders, both secular and religious have a lot to answer for.
Joseph Bonnici
Aug 11th 2012, 13:55
Instead of bringing all his family to Malta (which increases the illegal immigration problem fivefold, if not more), why not send the illegal immigrant back to his family and all the family will be united once again!!!!!!
We simply have no room for all these illegal immigrants on this small rock of ours!!!!!
Francis Bonello
Aug 11th 2012, 13:34
This is nonsense.
James Fisher
Aug 11th 2012, 13:29
Why did they come in the first place?
If they want to see there families they should go back to them not bring them here.
Joseph Vassallo, (Bugibba)
Aug 11th 2012, 11:54
Utter nonsense. This is what happened in UK decades ago and they ended up taking in anyone remotely connected to the immigrant's family tree and even those who were not (sometimes for a fee). Extended family trees are infinite and there is no way of checking the veracity of a blood connection.
Justin Farrugia
Aug 11th 2012, 11:31
We are ruining ourselves. We have to bring there families too now hahaha, it's already a huge burden on the maltese economy to have such immigrants. The so called immigrants nowadays have more human rights than a normal taxpayer has. We have to address this issue, malta cannot keep on welcoming everyone on this tiny rock. The next in line is we use the boats they came with so we have to escape.
Joseph Micallef
Aug 11th 2012, 11:30
There is a simpler solution. SEND THE ILLEGAL RESIDENTS BACK TO THEIR FAMILIES.
stephen koludrovic
Aug 11th 2012, 14:55
It is safe enough for their familes living there, then it should be safe enough for the immigrant to return and rejoin them there.
Barney Camilleri
Aug 11th 2012, 10:33
I agree if only they send them living on the Church property that they have closed behind private doors.
John Portelli
Aug 11th 2012, 10:31
Why not send them back to families ? So they can live happy in thir homelands.Why do they have to be in Europe.
Scott Mccloskey
Aug 11th 2012, 09:58
. this was in the mail online during the week. This is what malta should be doing not inviting more over.
Greece's purge on illegal immigrants: Thousands are rounded up ready for deportation
The Greek authorities are rounding up thousands of suspected illegal immigrants in a large-scale deportation drive.
Up to 6,000 were detained over the weekend in Athens and more than 1,600 are to be deported in the next few days.
Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said Greece could not afford an ‘invasion of immigrants’.
and blames the influx on bringing the econemy to the brink.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184455/Greeces-purge-illegal-immigrants-Thousands-rounded-ready-deportation.html#ixzz22rSVST00
Take heed MALTA
Alfred J. McEwen
Aug 11th 2012, 10:52
Alfred J. McEwen
`Take heed` is the operative phrase and your comment says it all. Some people such as the likes of Casa and Busutill beg to differ.
Eric Soames
Aug 11th 2012, 09:47
I do not understand this delight some people in a vociferous minority have in advocating cultural suicide in such a small nation.
Joanne Micallef
Aug 11th 2012, 09:30
A clear distinction has to be made for legal migrants and ILLEGAL migrants, cause anyone who has no right to be here certainly has no right to get his family over no matter how long he's here ILLEGALLY.
Please choose the reason of your report below: