The government's policy on illegal immigration is driven by five key objectives. First, to ensure that the national interest is safeguarded. Second, that there is just treatment of immigrants. Third, that standard procedures are followed for dealing with asylum seekers. Fourth, that we encourage the social inclusion of those eligible for refugee status. And fifth, that the orderly removal of immigrants who are ineligible for refugee or protected status is implemented as expeditiously as possible.
The actions we take to meet these policy objectives are inevitably constrained by the limited human and financial resources available. While there may be occasional gaps between our good intentions and their execution, we are determined to work hard to implement these policy objectives.
There has been much talk, and some criticism, of the vexed issue of detention. In order to understand why we have such a policy one has to go to the heart of what government is all about. The paramount duty of any government is to ensure that its people are secure and safe and that their liberty, fundamental human rights and economic well-being are assured.
Security defined in this way is a very broad concept. It encompasses the reduction or removal of the possibility of external threats against Malta's territory or its vital national interests. It also includes upholding the rule of law and internal public order. It aims to create the conditions of stability within which to pursue Malta's national interests. It is against this background that the influx of immigrants to Malta should be viewed. Illegal immigration inevitably places strains on Malta's financial and human resources. The social, economic, demographic, cultural and security impact on Malta today - in the widest sense of stability, public order and cohesion - raises inescapable concerns that must be addressed responsibly.
Malta recognises its international and moral responsibilities to provide asylum or protected status to those who genuinely need it. We have been just and fair in our response. A very high proportion of immigrants who have landed in Malta have been granted refugee status or protection. But the possible consequences for the social cohesion, cultural and economic well-being of the country if the present pressures are not mitigated are matters that cannot be ignored.
Nowhere is this more sensitive than where Malta's policy on detention is concerned. Some have argued that the present policy is wrong because it deprives liberty to persons who, technically, have only committed the offence of entering the country without the required documentation. These critics also argue that the conditions in which detainees are kept due to crowding is reason enough for the removal of all detention centres and the introduction of reception in open centres after a maximum of only 15 days in detention.
To argue thus, however, is to ignore all the other factors that a responsible government has to weigh in the scales in deciding what constitutes the best answer for handling asylum-seekers in Malta. These include those all-important factors that no government can ever ignore: the political and social consequences of such a policy, the employment, housing and cultural impact of how we deal with illegal immigrants, and the financial and other resource implications and public order and stability. All these factors argue overwhelmingly for the most careful management and control and the ability to absorb the extra numbers entailed in a well-calibrated manner over time.
Malta cannot escape its geographical and physical limitations. In a country with absolutely no hinterland, as small and densely populated as this, the impact of masses of asylum-seekers on the community is far greater than in any other independent state in Europe. This is an aspect of Malta's unique position that the UNHCR clearly appreciated in the letter High Commissioner Antonio Guterres sent to the Council of Home Affairs Ministers earlier this month.
Our detention policy is also necessary to maximise the possibility of repatriating those persons whose applications for asylum are definitively rejected. The laborious process to obtain the required travel documents for these persons takes time but is heavily dependent on these persons being readily available for the police to carry out their investigations in the most effective manner. The recent news that Frontex will engage directly in obtaining travel documents for failed asylum seekers in Malta and organise joint repatriation flights originating from Malta will help to speed up the repatriation process and, hence, reduce the detention period for these people.
The paramount national interest, therefore, obliges the government to tread carefully. Given the economic uncertainties through which we are passing, the fragile local employment market, the intense pressures on social housing and the limited availability of public accommodation, we believe that the policy of detention and the mix of open and closed accommodation centres in place is the right one.
While the government is determined to ensure that applications for asylum are handled expeditiously and, importantly, that, within available resources, there is a continuing programme of improvement to living conditions, it remains clearly of the judgement that it would be both impolitic and impractical in today's circumstances to alter the detention arrangements. Considerable merit is seen in these arrangements, which allow the government proper control of illegal arrivals in Malta and ensures the maximum protection, stability and security for our people. It would be irresponsible to do otherwise.
Mr Scicluna is the adviser to the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs on illegal immigration.