Publication Archives - aditus foundation

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.

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.

Comprehensive report on Malta’s asylum regime 2022: AIDA report

We are extremely happy to share with you the publication of the most comprehensive report on Malta’s asylum regime, covering 2022: the Asylum Information Database report (AIDA). This year, the report also includes a separate Annex providing detailed information on the implementation in Malta of the Temporary Protection Directive throughout 2022. The AIDA report is published by ECRE.

The report provides in-depth information on the various aspects of the asylum regime: asylum procedure, reception conditions, detention, content of international protection. It is based on months of desk research, complemented with information provided by various entities…who we sincerely thank for their cooperation.

Malta continues to fail LGBTIQ+ refugees: 2 new publications

We just published two documents that show how Malta continues to fail LGBTIQ+ refugees. As part of the #Safe4All campaign, we are urging Malta to revise it’s asylum laws because the current regime simply does not offer protection to people fleeing because of their LGBTIQ+ identities and/or behaviour.

For Malta Pride 2022, and as part of our activities building up towards EuroPride 2023 (hosted in Malta), we launched a campaign that focuses on LGBTIQ+ refugees in Malta. The campaign flags that Malta designates as ‘safe’ a list of countries that criminalise in their laws LGBTIQ+ identities and/or behaviour. This is unacceptable, as Malta should not be considering these countries as safe.

Civil Court: Refusals by Identity Malta on basis of public security must be based on evidence, Immigration Appeals Board is bound by principle of equality at arms – Analysis

In the case of Istok Lazarevic vs. Direttur tad-Dipartiment taċ-Ċittadinanza (Appell Nu 78/2018), the Civil Court of Appeal revoked a decision issued by the Immigration Appeals Board (“the Board) upholding a refusal decision by Identity Malta Agency (“the Agency”) for a single permit application on the grounds of public policy and public security.