“Journeys of Hope: We urge Malta to grant safe and legal access to refugees”

Press Statement on World Refugee Day 2016

On World Refugee Day 2016 Jesuit Refugee Service Malta, aditus foundation, Integra Foundation and the Malta Emigrants’ Commission underline the need to allow refugees safe and legal access to protection.

To highlight the urgency of this call, JRS Europe yesterday launched ‘Journeys of Hope’, a collection of personal encounters with men, women and children as they hope, yet struggle, to reach European safety. Gathering stories from Greece, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Austria and Germany, ‘Journeys of Hope’ is a stark reminder of the difficulties refugees face as they are repeatedly denied access to their most basic fundamental human rights.

Importantly, it talks about the dangerous journeys they must take in order to survive.

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Fatumo has been living in Malta for six years. Malta believes she does not qualify for refugee status, yet has granted her subsidiary protection on the basis of the conflict that has been tearing Somalia apart for the past 20 years.

Her three children are living with her sister in Kenya, but life in the refugee camp is extremely tough and their futures uncertain. Fatumo doubts she’ll ever see her children again.

Subsidiary protection, like refugee status, acknowledges that it is impossible for beneficiaries to return back to their homes. It is renewed every three years for as long as is necessary. Many subsidiary protection beneficiaries have been living in Malta for several years.

Unlike many EU Member States, Malta does not permit beneficiaries of subsidiary protection to be reunited with their families. This right is only granted to refugees, denying all others a future with their close and loves ones. Many of these persons have made Malta their homes, having arrived here several years ago.

Nonetheless, their daily lives are consumed by their anxiety about the safety of their spouses and children.

Mohamed chose not to risk his life by getting on the little boats leaving Libya. Instead, and because he had the means to, he obtained a false Libyan passport and used it to fly to Malta. Upon arrival he was arrested, and subsequently faced criminal charges in Court. He was found guilty and sentenced to six months imprisonment.

A young Libyan man, Mohamed felt he had to flee Libya in order to survive.

Article 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention prohibits States from penalizing refugees who irregularly enter their territory. The Article understands the difficulty faced by most refugees in obtaining legal access to a State that could offer them the protection they need.

We welcomed Malta’s recent review of its detention policy insofar as it embraced this understanding within the administrative context.

Yet we underline the inconsistency of this review with legislation that imprisons the same refugees who would be exempt from detention had they risked their lives to enter Malta.

Providing safe and legal ways to reach a place of safety is the most effective way to prevent refugees from resorting to unsafe and irregular means of travel to access Europe, thereby saving lives. We feel there is much Malta can do to advocate for such means at EU level, including urging a more meaningful resettlement commitment and encouraging a broader and more proactive use of humanitarian visas.

Yet we also feel Malta may make significant contributions towards preventing additional dangerous and illegal journeys, specifically:

  1. Agree to reunite at least 500 spouses and children with their family members (beneficiaries of subsidiary protection) already living in Malta within the next 12 months; and
  2. Provide refugees an exemption from prosecution for using false documents to travel to Malta.

JRS Malta, aditus foundation, Integra Foundation and the Malta Emigrants’ Commission are eager to explore possibilities of cooperating with Government in the implementation of these measures.

We are confident that our joint efforts could facilitate the process in a spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding.

For further information:

 JRS Malta – Katrine Camilleri (79858099)

aditus foundation – Neil Falzon (99892191)

Integra Foundation – Maria Pisani (79618367)

Malta Emigrants’ Commission – Mgr. Alfred Vella (99440025)

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‘Solidarity with refugees living in camps: Joint PR on PM’s visit to Al Za’atari Refugee Camp

The Prime Minister’s visit to Jordan’s Al Za’atari Refugee Camp offers Malta the unique opportunity to express true solidarity with Jordan and with the refugees living in the Camp. Al Za’atari Refugee Camp hosts around 80,000 refugees, making it more than double the size of Gozo’s population. Of these, around 30% are children.

Future prospects for these refugees remain bleak. Given the drawn out war in Syria, and the pitiful number of resettlement places made available, we can say with some certainly that these refugees will remain warehoused, will limited access to basic human rights and needs.

aditus foundation, Integra Foundation and JRS Malta welcome the Prime Minister’s visit to the Camp; we are confident that his interactions with the men, women and children living in Al Za’atari will sensitise him to their desperate need to have their human dignity restored.

We also welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to continue urging the European Union to provide further assistance to Jordan and Lebanon. Yet we also note that Malta has decided not to participate in the European Union’s resettlement agreement with Turkey

It is in this light that we strongly urge Malta to participate in UNHCR’s resettlement efforts by agreeing to resettle refugees directly from Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey. This would restore the refugees’ hopes of a future of safety, dignity and respect.

Providing safe and legal ways to reach a place of safety is the most effective way to prevent refugees from resorting to unsafe and irregular means of travel to access Europe, thereby saving lives. It would also be Malta’s firm message to the European Union, and to the international community, that the current response to the refugee crisis is unacceptable and requires immediate revision.

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aditus foundation is an independent, voluntary & non-profit organisation established with a view to monitor, act & report on access to fundamental human rights by individuals & groups.

www.aditus.org.mt

Integra Foundation was set up with the aim of facilitating the integration of minority groups in Malta.

www.integrafoundation.org

JRS Malta seeks to accompany, serve and defend the rights of asylum-seekers and forcibly displaced persons who arrive in Malta.

www.jrsmalta.org


Announcing Two New Projects!

aditus is pleased to announce two exciting new projects we’ve taken on, in cooperation with four esteemed partner organisations.

Project Integrated is an undertaking shared by aditus, JRS Malta and Integra Foundation, with the support of UNHCR Malta. The three Maltese NGOs will integrate their best efforts, until the end of 2015, for the sake of better integrating beneficiaries of international protection in the local context – to help them profit fully from their human rights and to restore their pride as independent and successful contributors to society.

In anticipation of the integration policy which Malta is meant to publish this year, Project Integrated will work to help beneficiaries see some of the everyday benefits that come directly, in theory, from their protected status. In education, healthcare and employment, for example, many obstacles remain, even as beneficiaries have the right to all three: We intend to advance integration through counselling, facilitating access to services, monitoring the practical lapses in integration and ongoing advocacy with the Maltese authorities and the press.

In particular, aditus will offer its legal expertise to Project Integrated through the further mobilisation of its Pro Bono Unit. aditus will also build on the insights gained in our earlier projects, especially the Stakeholder Information Sessions, to organise capacity-building activities with its partners.

Next, as a member of the European Network on Statelessness, aditus will be the Maltese focal point for the project Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary DetentionThe European Network on Statelessness is a group of NGOs, academic initiatives and individual experts with over 90 members in 30 European countries. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion will be an expert partner on the project; and in March, American photojournalist Greg Constantine will be in Malta to document the problem. Nowhere People, the website featuring his work on statelessness, is here.

Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention, a three-year project, will address the increase in Europe of immigration detention, including as a form of punishment, and the state criminalisation of irregular migration, the lack of protection for the stateless and the gulf between the rights afforded to the stateless on paper, according to legal standards, and the actual realisation of those rights. The gulf, in fact, leaves many stateless persons vulnerable to arbitrary detention in Europe.

Protecting Stateless Persons will study each national reality of statelessness, offer region- and country-specific tools to protect the stateless, train lawyers, NGOs and others to use those tools and advocate for protection.