Four out of every five migrants who applied for asylum in Malta last year were granted immediate protection, meaning the island had the second highest percentage of positive asylum decisions in the EU.

This high rate of positive decisions was due to the fact that the bulk of those granted protection status were from war-torn countries: 665 from Somalia, 550 from Eritrea and 270 from Syria.

Figures showed that, last year, 24 boats arrived in Malta with 2,008 irregular migrants aboard, an increase of 6.2 per cent over the previous year when 1,890 people arrived on 27 boats.

Last year’s arrivals marked the highest amount since 2008 when 2,775 migrants arrived. Nearly half of last year’s arrivals – 984 – landed in July.

Eurostat and Malta’s National Statistics Office released the figures yesterday on the eve of World Refugee Day today.

The NSO data focused on the situation in Malta and pointed out that, last year, 2,246 new applications for international protection were filed with the Office of the Refugee Commissioner. The office processed 1,905 applications, 84 per cent of which were granted a positive decision.

This percentage placed Malta second in the list of positive first instance decisions granted in the EU. Bulgaria had an 87 per cent rate while Romania came third with 64 per cent.

Figures also showed a 14 per cent drop in the resident populations in open centres and other institutional households, down from 295 (in 2012) to 244.

Last year 2,437 people were found to be in Malta illegally with 460 being sent back to their country of origin. This figure referred to third country nationals found living here without any valid permit, irrespective of the year of arrival.

The UNHCR Global Trends Report, also released yesterday, showed that, for the first time in the post-World War II era, the number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people worldwide exceeded 50 million.

The “massive” increase was mainly driven by the war in Syria, making Syrians among the largest refugee populations together with Afghans and Somalis.

The report noted that Malta granted protection to 10,808 people over the past years. It ranked fifth when considering the number of refugees per 1,000 population with 23 per 1,000 inhabitants. It was preceded by Lebanon, Jordon, Chad and Mauritania.

Eurostat noted that the highest number of people granted protection were registered in Sweden followed by Germany, France, Italy and the UK. The Emigrants’ Commission’s Refugee Section urged the Maltese not to get used to the crisis in Syria and forget the victims. It said people in other parts of the world might have already become indifferent to the Syrian tragedy and Malta would do well to speak against such indifference.

Six Maltese refugees

There are six Maltese refugees in the world, according to data in the UNHCR Global Annual Report for 2013.

The study does not give details and bases its information on data obtained from governments.

The report, which sheds light on global migration patterns throughout 2013, only notes that there were six refugees, or people with refugee-like status, who originated from Malta.

When asked who these people could be, a spokesman for the UNHCR Malta branch said that a plausible explanation could be that a national authority had registered a refugee by country of birth and not by that person’s nationality.

For example, a Somali person born in Malta could have been registered as originating from Malta when applying for asylum in another country.

“One also cannot exclude that, in the past, a Maltese person sought asylum somewhere else,” the spokes­man added.

Arrivals 2002-2013

Source: Police General Headquarters, as quoted by NSO

Rights groups: no child must be in a detention centre again

Nine human rights NGOs are calling on the government to take “concrete steps” and ensure that no child ever again sets foot in a detention centre.

In a joint statement appealing for urgent action, they quote Farah Abdallahi Abdi, detained as a child in Malta, who spoke on child detention at the Palais des Nations, Geneva.

“My experience of detention is like being caged – it is traumatising and an injustice,” he said.

It is like being caged – traumatising and an injustice

His words were a stark reminder of the profound suffering caused by detention. “On Freedom Day, the Prime Minister pledged to end the detention of children, a commitment we were happy to welcome. Yet, children arriving in Malta are still being detained. We also reiterate our concern that unaccompanied minors are often detained with adults pending the outcome of age assessment,” the NGOs said.

Acknowledging that in the past months there were significant improvements in the quality and the duration of the age assessment procedure, they said more needed to be done to honour the commitment to end child detention.

The NGOs urged people to sign the European Council on Refugees and Exiles petition in aid of Syria’s 2.7 million registered refugees at http://www.helpsyriasrefugees.eu/en/sign-the-petition.html .

The NGOs were Aditus foundation, Integra Foundation, JRS Malta, KOPIN, Malta Emigrants Commission, Migrant’s Network for Equality, Organisation for Friendship in Diversity, People for Change Foundation and SOS Malta.