“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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World Refugee Day 2016

fuocoammare

As refugees continue to attempt the dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean Sea, a discussion on the reasons and consequences of these voyages remains a relevant one.

World Refugee Day 2016 is addressing this discussion by bringing together the Valletta Film Festival, aditus foundation, the Italian Cultural Institute and UNHCR Malta to organize two events on the themes presented in the award-winning film ‘Fuocoammare’.

The film will be screened as part of the Valletta Film Festival (8 June). You’re also invited to a participate in a conversation on the theme of refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea (7 June), with special guest Dr. Pietro Bartolo, the protagonist of ‘Fuocoammare’.

Check out the events at the World Refugee Day 2016 page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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‘Unprotected Families’ Joint Statement for World Refugee Day 2015

As refugees flee their homes, escaping persecution or war, they are often forced to leave behind their husbands, wives, children, parents or loved ones. Along the route, searching for safety, refugee families face severe difficulties in ensuring shelter and basic livelihood, particularly for young children and other vulnerable persons.

Very often, families are torn apart following flight, dispersed in refugee camps, cities or other transit points. Some persons are simply unable to continue the escape, succumbing to armed groups, illness, lack of nutrition, severe climatic conditions. Family members reuniting with their loved ones in a country offering refuge struggle to be recognized as persons also requiring protection and safety.

Today, in commemoration of World Refugee Day, we recall the impact of the refugee plight on those family members left behind, those dispersed along the way and those eventually reuniting in safety. In this regard we acknowledge that family is the cornerstone of society, a value that is highly cherished and protected in Malta. We therefore express our solidarity with all those refugees whose family experiences are reduced to hurried calls, who are lamenting the loss of their loved ones, or who are striving to start a new life with their families, also here in Malta.

The protection of refugees should mean protection also of their family members, especially for those who remain living in peril. We therefore invite Malta to explore the possibility of extending family reunification to beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, thereby discouraging family members to avoid resorting to dangerous and illegal routes to joining their loves ones. We also strongly urge Malta to consider the situation of family members reuniting in this country, by securing their legal status and documentation that guarantee real protection.

The world we live in today has more people displaced by conflict than at any time since the Second World War. World Refugee Day is an opportunity to highlight the impact of war on families and place individual refugee family stories at the centre of our attention.

This year we have teamed up with Valletta Film Festival and the Film Grain Foundation to commemorate World Refugee Day in Malta also through the medium of film. The powerful documentary ‘Born in Gaza’ will screen in Valletta on 20, 21 and 23 June (St James Cavalier and the Embassy Complex).

Filmgrain Foundation: “We are honored to have teamed up with UNHCR and the local human rights NGOs to commemorate World Refugee Day. Film Grain Foundation strongly believes in the power of Cinema to raise awareness about the world’s many realities. Hernan Zin’s film Born in Gaza is gripping and necessary reminder of one of the main causes for forced migration: War, told by the uncorrupted voices of Palestinian children.”

Statement by:
aditus foundation, Foundation for Shelter and Support to Migrants, Integration Foundation, JRS Malta, KOPIN, Organisation for Friendship in Diversity, People for Change Foundation, UNHCR Malta.


Words to Action: End the Detention of Children (NGO Statement for World Refugee Day 2014)

“My experience of detention is like being caged – it is traumatizing and an injustice.” These are the words of Farah Abdallahi Abdi, detained as a child in Malta, speaking at an event on child detention at the Palais des Nations, Geneva. Farah’s words are a stark reminder of the profound suffering caused by detention. They are also an urgent call to action.

To mark World Refugee Day on 20th June, we call upon the Government to translate words into action by taking concrete steps to ensure that no child ever again sets foot in a detention centre.

On Freedom Day the Prime Minister pledged to end the detention of children, a commitment we were happy to welcome. Yet children arriving in Malta are still being detained. We also reiterate our concern that unaccompanied minors are often detained with adults pending the outcome of age assessment.

We acknowledge that in recent months there have been significant improvements in both the quality and the duration of the age assessment procedure, thanks to the unstinting efforts of the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum-Seekers (AWAS). However, we feel much more needs to be done to honour the commitment to put an end to child detention.

In particular we urge the Government to establish appropriate non-custodial reception facilities for families with children, as well as for unaccompanied minors pending the outcome of age assessment.

We reiterate our willingness to engage with this and other review processes, and to share our varied expertise and experiences. We pledge to continue to support positive efforts to improve Malta’s asylum regime, and we hope to be given the opportunity to contribute to a more sustainable and long-term strategy.

Finally, a second urgent call to action: We ask that everyone reading this statement consider signing the European Council on Refugees and Exiles petition in aid of Syria’s 2.7 million registered refugees ). To date, Malta has contributed just 21 of its 12,582 international signatures. World Refugee Day, 20th June, is the deadline. This plea simply asks Europe’s leaders “to give refugees a safe way into Europe, to protect refugees arriving at Europe’s borders, and to reunite families torn apart by crisis.”

NGO statement by: aditus foundation, Integra Foundation, JRS Malta, KOPIN, Malta Emigrants’ Commission, Migrant’s Network for Equaliy, Organisation for Friendship in Diversity, People for Change Foundation, SOS Malta.