Malta will continue classifying spending on refugees and irregular migrants at home as overseas development aid, the Foreign Ministry said.
In response to a recent Times of Malta editorial on transparency in aid spending, a spokesman pointed out that the country abides by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development rules on aid spending, even though it is not an OECD member.
“Temporary assistance to refugees from developing countries arriving in donor countries is reportable as ODA (overseas development assistance) during the first 12 months of stay, and all costs associated with eventual repatriation to the developing country of origin are also reportable,” according to the OECD.
The NGO Kopin issued a national report on poverty eradication recently, in which it said ODA should not be inflated by adding the costs of housing refugees, especially not by financing prophylaxis detention.
The study made particular reference to the 2012 Aid Watch report, which claimed Malta could have inflated its development aid to poorer countries by 28 per cent in 2011 by factoring in money it spends on asylum seekers at home.
Malta received roughly €18 million a year in EU funds to help with asylum, immigration and border control. Kopin said this should be fully used for this purpose, with a separate aid budget to be invested directly in developing countries.
Under the previous administration, Malta had committed itself to spending 0.33 per cent of gross national income (GNI) on ODA in 2015. The country reported that it spent €14.3 million, or 0.23 per cent of GNI, on overseas aid in 2012.
In a Foreign Affairs Committee meeting last Wednesday, Foreign Minister George Vella said the Government will do all it can to reach the target of spending 0.33 per cent of gross national income on ODA by 2015.
The minister also reiterated the Government’s intention to have full transparency in the distribution of funds through ODA.
He said he will be insisting that all NGOs who receive ODA funding from the Government must be registered with the NGO Commissioner so that all the money was accounted for.
Some such NGOs have been reluctant to register in the past, the minister claimed.
Malta’s ODA expenditure is divided into multilateral and bilateral assistance to the tune of 37/63 per cent, the Foreign Ministry said.
Multilateral aid is delivered through the UN, EU and other international development organisations.
Malta’s bilateral assistance focuses on low income countries, primarily in the fields of health, education and gender equality.
Bilateral assistance is also given to countries that experience natural and man-made disasters.
“The remainder is expensed on the wellbeing and integration of irregular migrants and refugees in Malta,” the spokesman said.