Racist feelings were best tackled by addressing people's fears, which were often unfounded and caused by lack of awareness, Andre Callus from Moviment Graffitti said this morning.

He was speaking during an activity organised together with the Migrant Solidarity Movement to mark World Refugee Day.

A group of people wore white masks outside City Gate in Valletta and stood close to a banner stating that thousands of refugees had died in the Mediterranean in search of a new life.

Four refugees, removed their masks while they shared their experiences with a small crowd of people who gathered around them.

A Sudanese man explained how he had left his country, after his father died during the war, to find a better life and earn money to send home to his sick family. During his travels he ended up in Libya where he was punished for four days by being left out in the sun during the days and out in the cold at night. After that he and his friends were taken to a prison where they spent one year and 18 months living in a small crammed cell with a hole for a toilet.

Reflecting on this, Mr Callus called on the authorities not to send immigrants back to Libya where there were ill treated and tortured.

Another immigrant, from Nigeria, said that during the years he spent in Malta he learnt the plastering trade. However, he said, sometimes he was not employed because of the colour of his skin. His Somali friend explained that there were times when people commented because they saw that he had a mobile phone.

He explained that he had bought it with the money he earned when working legally adding that he also paid his taxes.