Migrants in legal no-man's-land

Migrants who were denied humanitarian protection were being left in a legal no man's land because of various laws, Parliament's Family Affairs Committee was told this evening.

Many such migrants could not leave Malta, with the government unable to repatriate them or send them to other countries due to political and logistical difficulties and laws denying them the right to any form of travel document.

The laws also denied these people any opportunity of obtaining permanent residence in Malta or of benefiting from any social or unemployment benefits, despite National Insurance contributions being deducted from their wages when they found a job.

These were some of the concerns raised by Emigrant's Commission head Mgr Philip Calleja in the course of the committee meeting.

Mgr Calleja argued that a double standard was being applied to beneficiaries of subsidiary protection. Of the 6,700 individuals granted such protection since 2002, some 1,500 had been resettled in other countries.

But while those lucky enough to be resettled could obtain citizenship and travel rights from their new host country, the 5,500 other protected migrants who remained in Malta had no such opportunity.

"Those who remain in Malta and settle here should be given the right to bring their family over after five years, and the right to apply for citizenship after 10," he said.

Committee members Jean-Pierre Farrugia (PN), Charlo' Bonnici (PN) and Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca (PL) listened attentively throughout the session.
There appeared to be broad agreement among them that many of these legal anomalies needed to be ironed out.

Mrs Coleiro-Preca felt that much of the broader public was still poorly informed about migration issues.

"There's a significant lack of knowledge about such matters, and it breeds fear of the unknown."

Dr Farrugia and Mr Bonnici both agreed, saying education had to be intensified in this field.

Mrs Coleiro-Preca argued that it was time for the government to start looking at active integration strategies, as Maltese society grew more diverse by the day.

Mgr Calleja's proposals included a call for migrants with no form of protection whatsoever to be given the right, after two years and if they had shown themselves to be of good conduct, to an aliens' passport to be renewed annually. This, he said, would ease their hardship and give them the opportunity to visit relatives, including their children, abroad.

Other countries already had such systems in place, and as a result Malta was being negatively affected, Mgr Calleja said.

He described a case where a man given a travel document by the Italian government had literally packed his bags and moved to Malta, because his wife had been denied protection here and was therefore unable to visit him.