A united front of immigrants from 11 African countries has called on the government to provide unemployment benefits, freedom of movement and better conditions at open centres.
The newly-founded Migrants' Network for Equality has written a letter to Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici highlighting the difficulties African migrants in Malta face, while proposing solutions.
The group, launched during a news conference yesterday, will also be presenting a letter to EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom.
One of its "most pressing concerns," the group said, was freedom of movement, whereby migrants with some form of protection wishing to live elsewhere in Europe were being sent back to Malta under the Dublin Regulation.
"We note with disappointment that, when the European Union was in the process of granting freedom of travelling, living and working inside the EU to persons with protection who had lived for at least five years in any EU country, for reasons incomprehensible to us, Malta was the only country to oppose these new rules and stopped them from coming into effect," the letter read, urging the government to reopen the debate on a European level.
The group also requested that immigrants working regularly who have paid at least 50 social security contributions over at least two years be given the right to apply for unemployment benefit, as is the case with the Maltese.
The letter said the lack of a safety net was deterring people from leaving open centres to find work, fearing they would lose the little allowance they were receiving should they lose their job. The group was therefore recommending that those who did not manage to pay 50 NI contributions before losing their job be given a small allowance.
The group said it was possible for the government to create open centres that met, at the very least, the basic standards needed to uphold the dignity and well-being of human beings.
The group also said it was a gross injustice that those arrested at the airport for trying to leave the island irregularly were given prison terms of at least six months, when it would have been their first offence.
This letter ushers in a new voice for migrants, whose most vocal advocates had been NGOs such as the Jesuit Refugee Service and Moviment Graffitti.
"For long, many of us have felt the need to do something about our situation here, but before anything could be done we needed to organise ourselves. While a lot is being said about immigration in Malta, the voice of migrants has been generally missing," Abshir Abdala, a spokesman for the group said.
While immigration worries persist among the locals, the African immigrants themselves had problems of their own to face.
"Stories about migrants and their experience have often been heard," said Andre Callus, representing 12 local NGOs who have lent their support to the network. "Now it is important that migrants be an active part of the debate on immigration."
Things came to a head when last March a resident at the Marsa open centre committed suicide. This was "the last of many incidents," Mr Abdala said.
The network started meeting on Sundays, and the group has grown to include representatives from 11 countries.
The letter they presented was signed by representatives of all 11 countries, 12 local NGOs and 23 academics.