refugees Archives - Page 14 of 27

Marching for LGBTIQ+ refugees!

Join us this Saturday 14 September for Malta’s Pride March!

This year we’ll be marching with a message that shows solidarity with so many of our beneficiaries who would love to march…but simply do not dare to: LGBTIQ+ refugees.

Our work brings us in touch with several men and women who have fled their countries because of the persecution they fear due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

We guide them through Malta’s asylum process, in particular by explaining the importance of explaining their LGBTIQ+ identities. Of course, this is extremely challenging. There are several personal, social and community obstacles along the path to revealing such personal stories to a Government Case Officer who might be mostly interested in knowing:

“What were you before you were gay?”
Case Officer, Office of the Refugee Commissioner.

It is even more challenging, at times, to reveal such identities to members of their own communities on whom they rely for almost everything.

For Malta Pride 2019 we want to remind Malta, and Malta’s LGBTIQ+ community, of the diversity within this very community. That LGBTIQ+ includes persons with disabilities, young and old, refugees, migrant…and so many more colours.

We want to reassure those LGBTIQ+ refugees who dare not march for fear of being identified, labelled, shamed, excluded or threatened, that we proudly march for them.

Join us and march for them too!

Look out for this banner…and march with us!

Migrants living in stables: our reaction

We are not surprised to read the news that yet another group of migrants were found living in squalor. On the one hand, it is terribly upsetting that more and more people have recognised an economic opportunity in this inhuman business. They are profiting by racist exploitation that ‘houses’ people in structures designed and intended for animals. Essentially, they reflect what we’ve been saying for far too long: Malta’s economic boom lives off the exploitation of migrants and returns close to nothing to its slave labourers.

Our 3 fresh policy papers on refugee integration, with Integra & JRS!

On behalf of aditus foundation, Integra Foundation and JRS Malta, I would like to share with you our 3 new publications on refugee integration.

Published in the context of Project Integrated, with the support of UNHCR Malta, the 3 Policy Papers are intended to guide our advocacy with Government on key aspects of refugee integration. In the coming months we will be engaging in dialogue sessions with Ministries and other entities so as to present our views and discuss ways forward.

The Policy Papers, published as an on-going series of policy input, are as follows (click on the names to download in .pdf):

Family Unit: a Fundamental Right highlights our concerns with Malta’s absolute ban on family reunification for beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, and urges Government to grant this right;
Input to the Ministry for European Affairs and Equality on the Migrant Integration Strategy and Action Plan focuses on the newly-adopted national integration strategy and seeks to strengthen its effectiveness by suggesting ministry-by-ministry actions and interventions;
Long-Term Residence and Citizenship by Naturalisation: A Necessity for Integration underlines the challenges faced by refugees as they attempt to secure a more stable presence in Malta, with a series of recommendations on how to make these avenues more accessible to them.

Do not hesitate to contact us should you require further information.

The El Hiblu 1 Case

On 30 March 2019 three teenage migrants – aged 15, 16 and 19 – were charged before Malta’s Courts. The most serious charges include acts of terrorism. If found guilty, they’ll spend the rest of their lives in prison.

They were rescued by a commercial vessel, the El Hiblu 1. Despite promises that they would be delivered to safety, the El Hiblu 1 sailed to Libya. Upon realising what had happened, the rescued migrants protested.

They simply couldn’t be returned to the horrible treatment they’d been suffering in Libya.

They need your help.

Book Launch: Our Island II: Personal Accounts of Refugees in Malta

There are circumstances you find yourself in that absolutely strip you of all human dignity. It is a painful thing.
When people look at refugees…sometimes they’ve been through so much, just let them be. They don’t want to trouble you. They just want to fit in.
I know the feeling because that’s what I have always wanted, just a place I can say, “Look, I’m home.”
Nicky

Our Island II: Personal Accounts of Refugees in Malta gives space to 12 refugee and migrant stories to speak for themselves. It presents stories reflecting differences in the time spent in Malta, cultural and national background, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, education and profession and family composition, here and away.

Our Island II also attempts to span a wide range of emotions and experiences: the anxiety caused by being locked up, surprise at a Maltese woman’s flirtatiousness, peer pressure within one’s own ethnic community, helplessness at being perpetually undocumented, pure joy at being united with family members, stress due to the constant need to ‘integrate’.

So when we said we were going to get married, some people were thinking, “An African marriage? How could it be nice?” But as soon as they arrived at our wedding, they were surprised at how people were, and at how people dressed…
People wore traditional clothes, and just like my boss, they were all dancing! When African music is put on, you not only want to listen, you want to move!
That’s why it was so much fun.
Ousman

12 stories: Nicky, Adil, Farah, Michael, Mary, Sekou, Agnes, Omar, Emad, Dursa, Hana, Ousman. Well, 11 stories and Emad’s poem. As you read through the stories, you will be invited into 12 very different worlds. You will get to know our contributors and be given a glimpse of their lives in Malta. They are indeed very different worlds, yet united by possibly two significant elements: the relationship between Malta and all narrators is based on otherness; and their protagonists are, quite honestly, regular people.

Our Island II will be launched on the 10th May 2019 at the Casino Maltese, Valletta. For more information email: info@aditus.org.mt.