The potential deportation of migrants who have settled down in Malta will have a negative social and economic effect on Maltese society, a petition launched by academics is warning.
The letter, which has gone viral, asks the Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister to withdraw the announced deportation of a number of African migrants, most of whom have integrated within Maltese society.
“The people designated for deportation have become members of and contributors to our communities. Deportation will therefore have negative ethical, social and economic effects not only on the deportees but on Maltese society as a whole.”
The initiative came from the Department for Inclusion and Access to Learning within the Faculty of Education, and the letter is expected to reach the government by Friday.
“We strongly believe that we cannot limit and confine inclusion to education but as a society we need to be inclusive and work towards ensuring that everyone feels safe and integrated in our society,” head of Department Colin Calleja told this newspaper.
The petition was launched after the Home Affairs Ministry last month announced it would be halting the Temporary Humanitarian Protection – New status, known as THPn for failed asylum seekers, as from next year.
This is a form of regularisation granted to those who “through no fault of their own” cannot be returned to their home country. THPn applicants were required to fulfil criteria such as employment, independent housing and fiscal contributions and would have arrived here before 2008. The rest were classified simply as failed asylum seekers.
According to data obtained by the NGOs, there were nearly 1,000 people with THPn in 2015.
News of the THPn review emerged at the same time that some 30 men were rounded up by the police and placed in detention last week. The ministry said this arrest was unrelated to the review.
Asked whether the petition was referring to the halting of the THPn or the detention of the men, Dr Calleja said all migrants at risk of deportation were in the same boat.
“Deporting migrants is always harmful, not only for the migrants but also for the Maltese society… We believe that a society that holds strong democratic principles and inclusive ideals should never consider the deportation of people on the sole basis of legal irregularities,” he said.
The letter in fact notes that not holding a permanent permit to reside in Malta did not prevent these people from contributing to society and to establish relationships.
“To tear them out from the local communities to which they now belong is a violent assault on Maltese society.”
The government’s claim that a small country like Malta needs urgent help to survive the wave of immigration does not contradict its potential efforts to offer hospitality to migrants already living here, it adds.
“Indeed, doing our best to host and protect people whose human rights are in peril gives credibility to Malta within the EU institutions.
“As concerned people who have at heart both the well-being of any human individual and that of Maltese society, we urge the Maltese government to renounce the decision to deport these individuals,” the petition reads.
“We are willing to collaborate with the Maltese authorities in finding more creative and inclusive solutions through which both the migrants and Maltese society will benefit.”
Those interested in signing the letter can send their name and ID card number on colin.calleja@um.edu.mt.