The current welfare system used with asylum seekers did not promote their independence and self sufficiency, Jesuit Refugee Service director Fr Joseph Cassar said this morning.
Speaking during a breakfast on the homeless and asylum seekers, held on the occasion of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, Fr Cassar said that freedom was what asylum seekers really wanted.
An unpublished pilot study, the results of which are to be launched soon, found that when it comes to immigrants there are four main factors which lead to immigrants becoming poor – accommodation, access to health services, jobs and education.
The Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers, he said, had a lack of clear guidelines.
Sometimes services were stopped and the reason why not always made clear to immigrants. Moreover, requests for people to be reintroduced into AWAS services were not always seen to.
Fr Cassar said that the allowance of people who did not turn up at AWAS for three weeks was stopped.
This system did not really promote independence and self-sufficiency. For immigrants’ jobs were seasonal and it did not make sense for them to relinquish their allowance and find a job.
The allowance was also not enough to cover the needs of vulnerable groups.
AWAS director Alex Tortell said that over the past eight years, the agency had provided a service to some 13,000 immigrants.
One of the key elements it worked for was integration.
Mr Tortell said reception centres could only support some pre-integration measures. Malta’s efforts for resettlement and relocation had to be seen as integration efforts, building on pre-integration in Malta, which ended at the open centre stage.
An immigrant pointed out that a lot of skills immigrants had went unnoticed because no one bothered to offer them jobs in their field of expertise.
When immigrants did not have jobs they remained dependent and had to stay at open centres with nothing to do. This, the immigrant said, led to psychological problems.
The breakfast was organised by the National Implementing Body, the Foundation for Social Welfare Services and the MInistry for Education.