Published: Input Paper on Access to Justice

The Strengthening Access to Justice for Improved Human Rights Protection project has as its objective the improving of access to justice for individuals wishing to strengthen their human rights protection in those instances when they feel that they have been violated. Whilst Malta has a relatively strong human rights regime that seeks to protect a long list of fundamental human rights, the practical protection offered to persons whose rights have been violated or might be violated is rather weak.

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When migrants and refugees speak for themselves…

…their narratives are more authentic and hard-hitting! We are super happy to share a Shadow Report on integration issues, research and produced by a group of migrants and refugees in Malta.

Produced in the context of our 2incING project, the report is the first-ever technical submission giving a direct and unfiltered voice to migrants and refugees. This is what happens when migrants and refugees speak for themselves!

The Shadow Report, available in English and in Maltese, looks at several aspects of life in Malta. It provides a general overview of migration in Malta and then dives into specific themes: documentation, employment, citizenship, marriage, housing, asylum, and statelessness.

An interesting blend of human stories and technical observations, the Shadow Report marks a significant turning point for our own work with migrants and refugees.



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Changing gears in our advocacy: Strategic Plan 2022 – 2024

This piece is taken from our recently published Annual Report 2022, where we shared our Strategic Plan for 2022 – 2024.

2022 was the first year of our new three-year Strategic Plan (2022 – 2024). For years, we have been taking small steps towards become more targeted and structured in our work. Whilst we are happy to be a human rights NGO looking at horizontal and structural issues, this broad approach presents resource and prioritisation challenges. If unseen to, it runs the risk of reducing our impact and demotivating our team members.

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We’ve just published Malta’s asylum statistics for 2022

We are publishing a table with Malta’s asylum statistics for 2022. It should not be an NGO doing this, but neither the International Protection Agency nor the Home Affairs Ministry publish asylum statistics, either annually or on a regular basis.

What are we publishing?

In the AIDA report for Malta covering 2022, we included data relating to Malta’s asylum procedure. The report contains information on new applications and decisions taken. For the sake of brevity and to provide the most relevant information, the AIDA report only provides a snapshot of the entire information. It is only here that you will find the full Malta asylum statistics for 2022.

In the table you will find the full statistics presented by Country of Origin of applicants. You will find information on applications (new and subsequent), and decisions broken down by the kind of decision taken. 

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Why do we have (big) issues with Malta’s Immigration Appeals Board?

The Immigration Appeal Board is established under Malta’s Immigration Act. It is tasked with deciding appeals on a long and varied list of immigration decisions: visas, age assessments, detention of asylum-seekers, reception conditions, removal orders, Single Work Permits, Specific Residence Authorisation… Because this list is so long and because it affects a core element of people’s lives, we cannot underline how important this Board is in Malta’s migration regime.

We appear before this Board on a weekly basis. In most situations, our clients are appealing decisions to detain them or decisions stating that they are adults and not children. But we have (big) issues with the Board, from how the law establishes it to how it operates in practice. These issues are presented in a recently-published article here.

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