Migrant open centres are constantly full and so can only offer basic services as Malta’s circumstances make it difficult for migrants to move out and integrate with the community, according to Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.
Defending the reception facilities that have often been criticised by human rights organisations, Dr Mifsud Bonnici yesterday said the lack of integration “translated into prolonged stays at the centres by significant numbers of migrants”.
“This, combined with new arrivals, leads to a situation where the centres are constantly full to capacity. Evidently, this scenario hinders refurbishment of the centres although such projects have, in fact, been undertaken,” he said, pointing out that this state of affairs was set to persist. He was speaking at a conference to mark World Refugee Day organised by the Refugee Commissioner.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the government recognised that many of these people did not have alternative accommodation arrangements and were allowed to remain at the centres.
“Standards at open centres could never rise beyond the provision of basic services but this is considered far preferable to leaving substantial numbers of migrants out on the streets without alternative accommodation,” he said.
Malta’s difficulty to cope with a large number of migrants was also highlighted by a senior official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Maria Stavropoulou, a senior regional protection officer with UNHCR in Rome, said Malta was considered to be “a special case” because of its particular circumstances and allowed refugees to be resettled in other countries. Turkey is the only other European country to be accorded such status.
Refugees in other European countries cannot be resettled in third countries because the UNHCR considers such countries to be safe. Focusing on permanent solutions, Ms Stavropoulou said integration with the host community was an important step even if refugees were resettled in other countries. However, she highlighted that from a world refugee population of about 10 million only 172,000 were eligible for resettlement.
“Resettlement is not a solution for everyone. Malta is treated by the UNHCR as a special case but it is unrealistic to say all refugees will leave Malta. It is more realistic to say refugees should be helped to become self-reliant,” she said. Describing Europe as a house with many doors, Ms Stavropoulou said that if one door was closed to migration another would be forced open somewhere else.
She said migratory flows in the central Mediterranean were practically stamped out last year because of the push-back policies adopted by Italy and Spain but this led to an increase in migration along the Greek border.
“While migrants dropped in Italy, Spain and Malta they increased significantly in Greece... This is a pattern we see all the time and this is why burden sharing makes sense because it helps manage migrant flows so that no one country feels overburdened,” Ms Stavropoulou said.
She said that an estimated 1,500 migrants could have died at sea while trying to cross over to Europe from Libya since the uprising started earlier this year.
Giving an overview of the situation in Malta since the beginning of the year, Refugee Commissioner Mario Guido Friggieri said the upheaval in Libya had sparked an influx of migrants that exceeded the annual average since 2002.