On Friday 27 January we organised a colloquy between refugee-led organisations and Government. The event was a joint effort between aditus foundation, African Media Association (Malta) and Spark15, part of the project 2incING. After so many months of virtual conversations, the colloquy was a needed face to face conversation about important integration themes: documentation, education, citizenship, political participation. As such, it was an important forum bringing refugees, migrants and Government to the integration table.
Watch our video clip on refugees and migrants meeting Government partners.
“Serbian national Milos Petric has shared his heartbreaking story which has seen him end up undocumented and at risk of losing contact with his 3 Maltese children after his marriage broke down.
Milos first arrived in Malta in 2010, and has lived here permanently since 2012. When he returned to Malta in 2012, he met a Maltese woman who he would go on and marry. The two have three children all under the age of 10.
Speaking to this newsroom, Milos explained how his marriage eventually broke down and they obtained a separation in December 2021. Since then, he’s been trying to secure what is known as a ‘Zambrano permit’ which would allow him to remain in Malta based on the fact that he has Maltese children even though he is no longer married to a Maltese national.”
We will do all we can for Milos to enjoy his rights and his family. Read his full story here.
We will be working on a number of exciting projects this year! They cover the areas identified in our 2022-2024 Strategic Plan and all target specific goals that we feel are crucial for the lives of many people living in Malta: asylum, equality and non-discrimination, rule of law, justice. You’ll see that the projects also reflect our mission to monitor, report and act on access to human rights, being projects that engage in various activities: research, publications, legal services, advocacy, training.
The projects are a mixture of continuous and new projects and here’s a sneak peak to what they are about. Together with these projects, we also have a number of on-going advocacy initiatives pushing for higher and better human rights standards.
The government’s continued abdication of search and rescue responsibilities is contributing to deaths in the Mediterranean
More than 1,300 people died or disappeared in the Central Mediterranean in 2022. These people – men, women, children, sons, and daughters – can be added to the deplorable death toll of more than 25,000 people who have died while crossing the Mediterranean since 2014.
The Maltese government’s continued failure to uphold its search and rescue (SAR) responsibilities contributes to this death toll by putting lives at risk. In 2022, Maltese authorities ignored more than 20,000 people in distress; 413 boats in distress in Malta’s SAR zone were not assisted, and only three boats were rescued by the Maltese Armed Forces.
At the end of 2022 we were informed that aditus foundation was chosen to be the national contractor for the FRANET by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) for the next four years. The FRANET is the multidisciplinary research network of the FRA. It is composed of contractors in each EU Member State who, upon request, provide relevant data to FRA on fundamental rights issues, to facilitate the Agency’s comparative analyses.
