NGOs have urged the Maltese authorities to acknowledge that absolute poverty exists here and to implement policies to ensure that vulnerable people are given the necessary support.

Skop, the National Platform of Maltese Non-governmental Development Organisations, issued a statement in reaction to the words of Parliamentary Secretary Joseph Cassar who last week said that the House was in agreement that there was no absolute poverty in Malta.

"At the same time that the parliamentary debate rejecting the existence of absolute poverty in Malta, a number of social activists were holding meetings with a group of African women residing in the north of Malta and currently benefiting from humanitarian protection.

"This group of around 30 women, all with children, lack basic needs including food and nappies for their children. This amounts to absolute poverty by any definition," Skop said.

Refusing or failing to acknowledge such categories of people was a sure way to guarantee that their needs would not be met, Skop said as it called on the authorities to recognise this reality and protect vulnerable groups.

"The participation of these groups in society is of utmost importance. It means giving these people the power, capacities, skills and access needed to change and improve their own lives."

Speaking during the debate last week on a Social Affairs Committee report on increasing social inclusion measures to combat poverty, Dr Cassar said that the House agreed that there was no absolute poverty in Malta unlike the situation in many other, much larger and richer countries. He added that the two sides of the House were largely in agreement on relative poverty adding that the government was certainly not happy with the figure of 57,000 people living in relative poverty.

Labour deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, Anġlu Farrugia, accused the government of inducing relative poverty in Malta and dragging its feet in the face of three recent events which were exacerbating the situation: reduced children's allowances, withheld supplementary allowances to pensioners and the non-curbing of the ever-growing network of gambling shops.