Struggling to Survive: research into poverty among refugees in Malta

Yesterday we launched the research report Struggling to Survive: An investigation into the Risk of Poverty among Asylum-Seekers in Malta. The report is a joint initiative with JRS Malta, and based on data collected from over 80 interviews with refugees and other migrants.

Our findings are quite staggering, indicating that 80% of refugees in Malta are living in poverty. Contributing factors include difficulties find stable and regular employment, low wages, high rent prices, insufficiency of social welfare support, language barriers, and limited childcare possibilities. The situation of refugee women is of particular concern.

Main recommendations include:

  • use the Minimum Essential Budgets concept as a guiding benchmark;
  • increase statutory minimum wage;
  • strengthen social security benefits;
  • broaden the scope of employment support services, with a particular focus on refugee women;
  • regulate temporary employment;
  • implement a national integration programme;
  • prioritise individual need over status, when determining social welfare support eligibility;
  • engage in further research into the theme.

The report, part of the broader Project Integrated, was published with the support of UNHCR and the Malta Community Chest fund.

It may be downloaded here (.pdf).


Malta’s EU Presidency legacy: a (legal) death-sentence for refugees!

When rickety boats laden with irregular migrants reach our shores, we see the suffering and the loss of dignity etched on these people’s faces. We understand that they are caught in a web of poverty and exploitation.

We feel for those fleeing persecution and poverty, in search of safety and prosperity. And we do everything we can to provide them with the help they need, offering refuge and respite.

It would be easy to flip channels once again; to park it in someone else’s back yard. But it is not someone else’s problem.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Sixty-Eighth Session of the UN General Assembly, 2013.

Herman Grech: Prime Minister, at the beginning of the legislature you considered returning to Libya a group of immigrants. Was that a mistake?

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat: Yes.

Times Talk interview, 2015.

In the document, the Commission is called on to “examine how to interpret and apply” the legal implications of a key humanitarian rule that protects migrants from being returned to a country where they may have reason to fear persecution, the so-called non-refoulement principle.

Malta’s Presidency of the EU Council to the EU Commission, 2016.



Why should you walk in solidarity with migrants?

You must know, or must have known, a non-EU national making Malta home.

He could be the Bangladeshi carer you’ve just interviewed to take care of your ageing parents. Or the quiet Sudanese plasterer brought in by your turn-key. Or the new Serbian waitress at the café round the corner. Maybe the Macedonian kids your children play with at school. The Bosnian artist you’ve liked on Facebook. Your new Ghanian neighbours. The Pakistani nurse that took care of you at Mater Dei.

Yes, the inspiration for Sunday’s #solidaritywithmigrants walk is the on-going issue with Government about a very specific group of migrants. Yet the message we want you to convey on Sunday is not just about this specific group.

It’s about all the groups of migrants living here. It’s a very simple and straightforward message telling them, and the rest of the country, that we stand with them as they put together the building blocks of their lives in Malta.

Sunday’s #solidaritywithmigrants walk is not asking you to take on any long-term political commitments. We’re not asking anyone to ignore serious discussions on integration, security, culture, and human rights. Nor are we asking you to take on these discussions head on!

Walking with us, in #solidaritywithmigrants, acknowledges the need to have these discussions.

More importantly, it tells migrants that these are discussions to be had with them and not about them.

Join us.



‘The right to live in dignity is a basic human right for all’ – NGO press statement on International Human Rights Day

We are shocked and saddened by the news of the death of Haji, the Somali man who died last Thursday under the bridge in Marsa. The grim discovery of his dead body, under the bridge that he had made his home, brought to light the disturbing but all too often hidden reality of poverty and homelessness among migrants in Malta.

Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding Haji’s death are not unique – our work is a daily encounter with people who cannot meet their basic needs. People for whom finding food and, at times, shelter is a constant struggle.

Their problems are often exacerbated by mental illness or alcohol dependence, which not only make people more vulnerable to poverty and homelessness in the first place, but also make it virtually impossible for them to break out of the destructive cycle of poverty without extensive support.

Although it would be facile to place all of the blame at the door of the state, it is clear that there is much more that can be done to ensure that migrants are able to live with dignity and effectively enjoy their rights.

Migrants, even those such as Haji who were granted protection, are provided with very limited support to rebuild their lives in Malta. Often they must turn to NGOs for help to learn the language, further their education, or to find a job or housing. Those struggling with mental illness or alcohol dependence, who need intensive services and support, are often unable to find it. This, coupled with difficulties finding work that is not precarious, seasonal or under-paid, and soaring rent prices, makes it increasingly difficult for migrants to live with dignity.

Over and above, policies that are apparently legitimate, often act as a barrier to the enjoyment of rights, leaving people trapped in poverty and destitution.

The right to live in dignity is a basic human right.

Today, as the world marks International Human Rights Day, we urge Government to address the issue of poverty even among the migrant population and to take steps to ensure that individuals living in destitution receive the support that they need to live with dignity.

Statement made by: aditus foundation, African Media Association Malta, Integra Foundation, International Association for Refugees, JRS Malta, Malta Emigrants’ Commission, Migrant Women Association Malta, Migrants’ Network for Equality, People for Change Foundation, Platform of Human Rights Organisations in Malta, SOS Malta.