Press Statement Archives - Page 2 of 35

VACANCY: We’re hiring a passionate & driven lawyer to join our NGO

FRUSTRATED? LOOKING FOR MEANINGFUL WORK?

We are looking for a lawyer to join our pro bono legal team at aditus foundation. The legal team carries out impact litigation, advocacy and public outreach, to ensure the protection of fundamental rights to our client base. In particular, the work focuses on protecting asylum and migration rights to asylum-seekers and beneficiaries of protection from arrival, through the application stage including possible appeals right on to ensuring the enjoyment of rights afforded to refugees. The lawyer will be responsible for litigation and developing strategy together with the legal and advocacy team.

Malta’s Institutional Neglect of migants – A Timeline

In 2020 the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment described Malta’s detention regime as amounting to “institutional neglect“. The conditions and incidences outlined in the CPT report are only the most recent in Malta’s long and shameful history in its treatment of migrants and asylum-seekers that have reached our shores since 2002.

Malta must give answers on Loujin’s death

Malta Refugee Council demands and official inquiry into the death of a young girl

At the end of August, Loujin, a four-year old Syrian girl, boarded a wooden fishing vessel on Lebanon’s coast with her mother and one year old sister, Mira, and set out across the sea with over sixty other people from Syria, Palestine and Lebanon.
Running out of basic provisions and taking on water, they began sending out distress signals on 2 September, 2022. Those distress signals were immediately relayed to the Maltese authorities.
Joint Press Statement on the vigil for Loujin held on 16 September 2022

Publicly available information on Loujin’s tragic death is conflicting. One version claims Malta was alerted to the distress situation on 3 September and that no concrete action was taken to secure the lives of the persons aboard the fishing boat. Another version claims that Malta was informed on 6 September and every step was taken to protect all lives, including that of Loujin.

The version everyone must agree on is that Loujin did not survive the ordeal, dying of thirst in her mother’s arms.

Save lives at sea

At the end of August, Loujin, a four-year old Syrian girl, boarded a wooden fishing vessel on Lebanon’s coast with her mother and one year old sister, Mira, and set out across the sea with over sixty other people from Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. Running out of basic provisions and taking on water, they began sending out distress signals on 2 September, 2022. Those distress signals were immediately relayed to the Maltese authorities.

For days, the Maltese Authorities ignored the distress signals. They also ignored NGO calls for help. For days Loujin, her family, and their fellow travelers drifted in the eastern part of Malta’s search and rescue region (SAR). Commercial vessels passed within eyesight multiple times. The Maltese Authorities shamefully instructed none of them to intervene.

Politico covers Malta’s abysmal detention centres

In case you missed this insightful piece, the prominent news portal Politico published a visual story on Malta’s abysmal detention centres. Put together by Joanna Demarco and Julian Delia, the piece is a rare human account of detention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was funded by the National Geographic Society.

We are honoured to have supported Joanna throughout her photographic journey. The piece complements our efforts to raise public awareness on the situation in Safi Barracks, Malta’s main detention centre. As we continue to provide our services to detained people, we also work to change the legal regime and to secure better living conditions.

Have you watched our Detained Narratives?