Politicians should talk about migrants in positive terms because nobody wants to integrate with a burden, a leader of a new association for African migrants has urged.
“When politicians speak about migration, they should speak in a positive manner. If they refer to migrants as a burden, nobody would like to integrate with a burden. Burdens cause trouble, and nobody wants trouble,” Hamma Amadu told this newspaper, as the debate in Europe about “burden sharing” carries on.
Everyone, including migrants, wanted to be independent and not a burden on anyone else, he added.
Mr Amadu was accompanied by two fellow leaders of the Migrants Association in Malta, set up to voice migrants’ concerns. He is one of 12 leaders that meet every week and have over the past year brought fellow Africans together under one roof.
“We have a lot of issues back home and the root of most of our problems here is lack of unity in our continent. We have different nationalities and speak different languages, but we all come from one continent.
When politicians speak about migration, they should speak in a positive manner
“Coming together in Malta could send a message to our continent: it is beautiful to come together. If we can do it here, our leaders can do it back home,” the young man from Niger said.
The new association is focusing on five main issues: integration, health care, education, social security and long-term residency, and wants to open a dialogue with the government “for a win-win situation”.
The worst affected are those from West Africa, most of whom have temporary humanitarian protection or are asylum rejects. Hailing from countries such as Sudan, Ghana, Gambia, Togo, Senegal, Nigeria and Niger, they pay tax and national insurance in Malta but receive no benefits when they lose their job, said Bushrah Fouad, from Sudan.
Moreover, some employers insist that migrants should work without a permit, meaning they recieve less than the minimum wage and are not insured against injury.
Migrants are caught in a vicious loop: they cannot ask for their right to work safely if they do not have a work permit, and they cannot bother their employer for a working permit in fear of losing their job.
“We pay utility bills, taxes, national insurance, rent, transport, and have nothing left of our wages. We are working to pay the bills, without any benefits, and this is causing a lot of suffering, as some of us lost body parts or even their lives in construction accidents,” Mr Fouad said.
Mr Fouad has been in Malta for some 10 years, just like fellow leaders Mr Amadu and Omar Mohammed.
Mr Mohammed said that since setting up the association they had realised that migrants were facing similar issues.
They are calling for long-term residency. Some rejected asylum seekers or migrants under temporary humanitarian protection have been here for as long as 20 years but are finding it increasingly difficult to renew their protection if they do not have a job, as they are asked for payslips and a work permit.
“We are wasting our time without any benefit. Ten or 20 years are not 10 or 20 months. We are integrated. We are not only willing to, but we are actually contributing to Malta,” Mr Mohammed said.
He said these issues were taking their toll on the migrants’ mental health and they hoped that coming together under the umbrella of an association could help them solve common problems.
Mr Amadu said migrants came to Malta illegally by boat and they understood that the Maltese had the right to design the law as they wished to, and to select whom to integrate with.
“One thing we’d like them to consider is our basic human rights: we are people, we have feelings and wishes, just like every normal human being. I don’t think anybody would like to leave his hometown and risk his life. But unfortunately we are in that situation.
“Just like animals, people too have basic human rights. Human rights are not temporary. We cannot stay a temporary human being forever,” he added with reference to the arduous renewal of the temporary humanitarian protection.