Press Statement: Stability Not Uncertainty: We Demand Rights! 

🇬🇧 Valletta, 22nd February, 2024

We, as long-term migrants living and working in Malta, are uniting to demand stability, not uncertainty, in our lives. In light of recent events and ongoing struggles faced by the migrant community, we are asserting our rights and calling for urgent action from authorities. We arrived in Malta years ago, leaving behind critical situations in our countries of origin, and now call Malta home. Although we were neither given protection nor a residence card, we were given the right to work legitimately and in turn to pay tax and national insurance for decades.

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Maltese Court rules that Access to Detention Centres by Public Watchdogs is key to holding authorities to account

A Maltese court, presided over by Mr. Justice Toni Abela, recently ruled that journalists, in their role as public watchdogs, must have access to detention centres in which migrants and asylum-seekers are held and to Corradino Correctional Facility [Emanuel Delia Vs L-Onorevoli Byron Camilleri et. Rikors Numru 201/20TA, December 2023]. In a case instituted by Maltese journalist Manuel Delia, it was argued that the refusal to allow access to journalists to detention and prison is a breach of the right to freedom of expression and allows for the actions of the authorities to be subject to public scrutiny.

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A new cooperation to strengthen our fight against illegal detention, because #ThereAreAlternatives

We are thrilled to announce a new cooperation that will strengthen our fight against illegal detention in Malta. Throughout 2023, we will be cooperating with the German NGO PRO ASYL in all our detention activities. This cooperation will boost our #ThereAreAlternatives campaign, pushing for Malta to bring its practices in line with fundamental human rights law.

In particular, PRO ASYL is providing us with financial support that will allow our lawyers to be more present in the detention centres to meet detained persons and see to their legal needs. This cooperation is also ensuring that our lawyers are able to visit our clients with much-needed interpreters, and to provide the people we meet with Fact Sheets about their legal situation.

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We urge MEPs to prevent harmful and discriminatory AI systems in migration

We just sent this appeal to Malta’s MEPs, urging them to prevent the harmful use of AI systems in the context of migration.

On 14 June, the European Parliament will vote on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). On behalf of the 200 organisations supporting the #ProtectNotSurveil campaign, we call on MEPs to ensure equal protection to migrants and people on the move, preventing harm from the use of AI systems in the migration context.  

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Human rights at the borders training: our Legal Officer reports!

Last month, I had the privilege to participate in a training organised by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on the topic of Human Rights at International Borders: Monitoring, Safety and Security of Human Rights Defenders.

This week was a unique opportunity to take a step back from my daily duties as a Legal Officer at aditus foundation. In fact, it is extremely easy to get caught up in the busyness of providing legal assistance to the most at need in a period when migration policies are increasingly austere. I believe it is crucial to dedicate some time to think about what we do, why we do it, and how we do it in order to have the ‘bigger picture’ in mind and achieve greater goals. 

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