Victim Support Malta has been asked by Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia to prepare a report outlining suggestions on how the Government can help the NGO operate in the best possible way for the benefit of victims of crime.
In a meeting which took place on Wednesday, the Minister urged the NGO to prepare a second report focusing on cases where victims did not receive help from the authorities.
Victim Support Malta’s director Roberta Lepre welcomed the Minister’s request.
Dr Mallia also asked the NGO to submit its accounts so that options for funding could be explored.
He said the prison reform should also help victims of crime. Due to a lack of rehabilitation services, 75 per cent of prisoners were repeat offenders. Fewer repeat offenders meant fewer victims, the minister added.
Recently, Corradino Correctional Facilities chaplain Franco Fenech and Fondazzjoni Dar Suret il-Bniedem coordinator Charles Mifsud set up Rise Foundation, in the hope of running a rehabilitation programme for prisoners serving the final year of their sentence.
Dr Mallia added that despite the fact that Victim Support Malta had been operative since 2004, few people knew about the services it offered.
Dr Lepre said the NGO was suffering from a lack of resources, including a lack of staff. The majority of the staff work on a voluntary basis, while other problems include the lack of security in the building from which the NGO operates.
She explained that the NGO sees about 80 victims of crime each year, with the majority being victims of domestic abuse and robberies. Unfortunately, Dr Lepre added, many of the victims who turn to their services do not gather the courage to report to police.
Last week, Times of Malta reported victims’ anger at the prisoners’ amnesty granted by Dr Mallia to commemorate Labour’s victory in the March election.
The amnesty, which will see the release of some 143 inmates this year, does not apply to rapists, human traffickers and prisoners convicted of abusing minors.
Dr Lepre said that amnesties “impinge on the victims’ right to reparation, while also undermining the rule of law”.
She has called on the Government to transpose the 2012 EU directive on victims’ rights into Maltese law “in order to strengthen the victims’ position within our criminal justice system, which is currently clearly biased in favour of offenders”.