A fifth of the Venezuelan asylum applicants whose cases were decided by the Office of the Refugee Commissioner in the past three years were granted protection.
Four people were granted refugee status and one person given temporary humanitarian protection between 2015 and 2017. Another 18 applications were rejected, while 31 cases are pending.
Venezuela is experiencing an economic and social crisis, seeing people taking to the streets protesting corruption, violence and food shortages. The EU has just announced sanctions on seven senior Venezuelan officials.
Asylum-seeking Venezuelans have increased yearly over the past few years, with the US, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica and Panama being the primary receiving countries. Malta also receives a share of Venezuelans seeking protection.
A young woman whose brother was killed for protesting said that if she had the option, she would have remained in Venezuela, but she has nothing left there except for a death sentence.
She has gone from owning shops in Venezuela to cleaning shops in Malta, but she is grateful for the safety that she is provided in Malta.
The woman, who is seeking refuge in Malta, as this is the only place where she knew someone from Venezuela, is still waiting to hear about her asylum application.
When contacted, Commissioner of Refugees Martine Cassar noted each application for international protection was assessed on its individual merits to determine whether an applicant qualified for refugee status in accordance with the grounds listed in the 1951 Geneva Convention.
Failing that, applicants may be granted subsidiary protection status in accordance with Article 15 of the Qualification Directive. The figures show that there were a total of 55 first applications between 2015 and 2017 – 36 of which were lodged in 2017 alone. Two of these were applications for the protection of minors.
The data also shows that the first decisions taken on the applications granted protection to five and rejected 18. One was ‘implicitly withdrawn’ and 31 are pending.