Malta ranked eighth in the world last year in terms of the number of refugees it hosted in proportion to the size of its population.
With 20 refugees for every thousand inhabitants, Malta is the only non-developing country in the top table of a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) report.
The other countries above Malta in the list are conflict areas or neighbours to war zones: Jordan, for example, has 49 refugees per thousand inhabitants, Chad, 33, Republic of Congo, 24 and Syria, 23.
The yearly UNHCR Global Trends report, which was published today, underscored that by the end of 2012, Malta had 8,248 refugees and another 767 asylum seekers.
Another report published yesterday, by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), highlighted the lack of help for Malta: “In 2012 solidarity among EU member states on asylum issues remained limited with the US resettling more refugees from Malta than all European states together.” This situation was highlighted by Maltese MEPs in the European Parliament last week.
The FRA report notes that the number of people relocated to EU member states and Schengen associated countries – 105 last year – has consistently been about three times less than those resettled from Malta to the US – 307.
This despite the fact that up till 2012, the pilot project for voluntary intra-EU relocation scheme was still operating – it has now been cancelled
The report also says that Malta is the only remaining EU member state to maintain a mandatory detention policy, allowing for the application of alternatives to detention only when release is considered.
It also recorded the fact that custodial measures led to the death of a Malian in Malta in 2012.
The report mentioned that last year 80 per cent of refugees in Malta were aged between 18 and 34 and that unaccompanied children were still kept in detention pending the outcome of the age determination procedure.
The report also mentions there is ethnic discrimination in the rental market in Malta especially with discriminatory housing advertisements.
Meanwhile, statistics published yesterday by Eurostat reveal that 75 per cent of people granted protection status by Malta were Somalis.
In 2012, 45 people were granted refugee status. This is given to third country nationals who cannot return to their country due to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group.
Moreover, 1,240 third country nationals were granted subsidiary protection – this is given to those who do not qualify as refugees but there are grounds to believe that if they returned to their country of citizenship, they would face a real risk of suffering serious harm.
A total of 165 were granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons and include people who cannot travel on health grounds and unaccompanied minors.
More than 90 per cent of the irregular migrants who applied for asylum in Malta last year were granted refugee or humanitarian protection status at first instance, according to the Eurostat data.
This was the highest percentage in the EU and well above the 28.2 per cent average.
Away from our shores, the UNHCR report said that more people are refugees or internally displaced than at any time since 1994, citing the crisis in Syria as the major factor for this intense global displacement.
It stated that 55 per cent of the 15.4 million refugees come from just five war-affected countries: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan.
Largest groups granted protection in Malta in 2012
Somalia – 1,090 (75%)
Eritrea – 165 (11.2%)
Syria – 115 (7.8%)
Number of refugees per 1,000 inhabitants
Jordan – 49:1,000
Chad – 33:1,000
Lebanon – 32:1,000
Rep of Congo – 24:1,000
Syrian – 23:1,000
Mauritania – 23:1,000
Djibouti – 22:1,000
Malta – 20:1,000
South Sudan – 20:1,000
Montenegro – 18:1,000
Third country nationals granted protection in 2012
Refugee status – 45
Subsidiary protection – 1,240
Authorisation to stay for
humanitarian reasons – 165