Naima’s boss warned her to never disclose her African heritage with clients and instead tell them she was an EU citizen from France.

The woman from Somalia worked for a consulting company in Malta, and her responsibilities included making tea for staff and clients, some of whom refused to drink it and passed crude remarks about her colour.

Naima worked for four years at the consulting company whose clients would loudly ask why a black woman had been employed.

Hers is one of the migrant stories collected by a foundation based in Paola, which, over the past two years, worked with organisations in eight European countries on an EU-funded project called The Citizens are Speaking.

Her responsibilities included making tea for staff and clients, some of whom refused to drink it and passed crude remarks about her colour

The Cross Cultural International Foundation published the stories about the lives of refugees, asylum seekers and expats alongside a set of recommendations on integration. Both publications were launched yesterday and copies were given to President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

Another migrant, Maxwell, from Ghana, worked for a cleaning company that paid him €3.20 an hour gross for eight years.

When he fell ill and was rushed to hospital last year, he was told he would not be paid sick leave for the two weeks he spent receiving treatment. So he took his case to the Department of Social Services, which could not trace any of the national insurance contributions his boss had deducted from his pay for all those years. Maxwell was reluctant to report the abuse and the fact he was not entitled to any holiday or sick leave for fear of losing his job.

The project leader of The Citizens are Speaking noted that migrants were reluctant to discuss migration issues because they believed the EU was “all talk but no action”. Hedwig Bvumburah insisted that, even with its limited budget, the foundation had managed to fund simple integration activities in each of the eight partnering countries.

In Italy, migrant children were taught about the Constitution through the game of chess and, when their enthusiasm spilled over at home, their own parents approached the school to enquire about the game and the Constitution.

In Croatia, a food activity brought together people with different backgrounds and this eventually led to the opening of a restaurant.

Here, in Malta, a room was refurbished to provide migrant children usually stuck indoors with a space where they can meet and do their homework with the help of volunteers.

Ms Bvumburah urged Ms Coleiro Preca to pass on the recommendations to the authorities, saying that hearing migrants’ voices could lead to concrete action.

Ms Coleiro Preca noted that the stories were accounts that, unfortunately, she had heard quite often during regular round tables with stakeholders.

With European societies becoming increasingly diverse, she said it was important to promote dialogue between different cultures while creating respectful and safe spaces where third country nationals could express themselves freely.

“At a time when prejudice is increasing across the world, we need to create more inclusive societies. We will make our region more prosperous and peaceful in the long run if we invest our resources and energy in policies for inclusion,” the President said.

Addressing the barriers faced by migrants was challenging but if the right policies were in place, the challenges would transform into opportunities, she said.

“It has been proven that migrants have a positive fiscal net contribution to make if they are promptly included in society, especially within the education and labour market. Failure to maximise the potential of migrants represents a massive waste of resources for the migrants involved and for society in general,” Ms Coleiro Preca said.

For better integration in Europe

•Ensure unaccompanied minors are housed in secure homes away from traffickers in overcrowded reception centres. Most of the 10,000 refugee children recorded missing in Europe disappeared from reception centres.

•Update border police and professionals about gender-sensitive issues. Female and child refugees might have faced sexual assault and rape in their home country or during the journey, making them vulnerable to mental illnesses and trafficking.

•Provide support to minimise mental breakdown of migrants suffering psychological trauma because of the journey and the stress of adjusting to a new environment.

•Law enforcement agencies should receive training in handling cases of xenophobia and discrimination.

•Police officers should be able to determine whether an offence is a hate crime because incidents are often labelled as a public nuisance.