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OUR ISLAND Personal Accounts of Protecting Refugees in Malta

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OUR ISLAND Personal Accounts of Protecting Refugees in Malta 1 OUR ISLAND Personal Accounts of Protecting Refugees in Malta An aditus foundation publication This book is dedicated to all refugees who have sought protection in Malta. We are extremely grateful to all contributors for their personal accounts and other shared memories. We also sincerely thank Arts Council Malta for their support of this publication. Acknowledgements Armed Forces of Malta, Darrin Zammit Lupi, Our Island: United Nations High Commissioner for Personal Accounts of Protecting Refugees in Malta Refugees, David Johansson First published in March 2018 (C) aditus foundation (C) Typesetting and design: Threeo Design. Printed at Threeo. Editor: Neil Falzon. Editoral Team: Sarianna Mileski, Emma Pahkala, Antonella Sgobbo. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing by the copyright owner. Cover Photo: Armed Forces of Malta marines negotiated with a group of around 180 refugees as a rescue operation got underway after their vessel ran into engine trouble some 30 km south-west of Malta, 25 September 2005. Photo, Darrin Zammit Lupi. ISBN: 978-99957-1-267-9 aditus foundation The idea to establish aditus foundation to focus almost exclusively on advocacy, of asylum and migration, LGBTIQ+, the Fundamental Rights Platform within was born in 2009. Our current Director, on constantly pushing the bar higher and access to justice and – recently – good the EU Fundamental Rights Agency Neil Falzon had just left his position as higher in order to achieve stronger and governance, we work closely with other (FRA), and of the Consultative Council Head of the UNHCR Office in Malta in more effective human rights protection NGOs as we research and publish our managed by the European Asylum order to take a personal break and to for all persons in Malta. We are inspired findings, provide input to government, Support Office (EASO). rethink his personal and professional by the Universal Declaration of Human offer legal aid services and support future. He wanted to remain in the Rights, and as lawyers are wholly the strengthening of human rights civil national human rights sector, to provide committed to removing those obstacles society actors. We established and a valid and sustainable contribution, and preventing anyone from accessing and are the Secretariat for the Platform of to avoid replicating the work being done enjoying their fundamental human Human Rights Organisations in Malta by other organisations. rights. (PHROM). At the time, Malta’s NGO landscape was After a period of operating from Neil’s We are a small team, relying heavily one largely dominated by organisations Birkirkara living-room with a handful on volunteers and interns. We are providing extremely valuable and of excited and eager volunteers, aditus extremely grateful for their unwavering needed services to various sectors foundation was formally registered with commitment to our mission and to the within the community. Human rights the Malta Commissioner for Voluntary invaluable support they provide us. advocacy at the level of targeting laws Organisations in March 2011. and policies was limited to a small aditus foundation is a member of number of NGOs highly specialised in Today, the organisation has a solid the: International Detention Coalition, their respective fields. track-record of being at the forefront of European Council of Refugees and Exiles, Malta’s human rights scene, consistently European Network on Statelessness, Within this context, aditus foundation’s advocating for a more effective Platform for International Cooperation founders (Neil Falzon, Nicola Mallia and and comprehensive human rights on Undocumented Migrants, Anna Lindh Carla Camilleri) wanted the organisation environment in Malta. Active in the areas Foundation. We are also members of 6 contents A NARRATIVE OF STRUGGLE 43 AND OF HOPE MICHAEL CAMILLERI SEARCH AND RESCUE AS AN 50 AFM’S ACTIVITY COLONEL CLINTON J. O’NEILL 69 THE STORY OF THE FRANCISCO Y CATALINA ABBREVIATIONS PAOLO ARTINI 8 INTRODUCTION THE OFFICE OF THE 10 73 NEIL FALZON REFUGEE COMMISSIONER MARIO FRIGGIERI TAKING A STAND: SOME 16 REFLECTIONS ON THE ACCOMPANYING REFUGEES 87 POLITICAL MOBILISATION IN DETENTION OF NGOS WORKING WITH KATRINE CAMILLERI REFUGEES IN MALTA MARIA PISANI STARTING A NEW LIFE IN 105 MALTA A GOVERNMENT MINISTER’S 33 ALI KONATE EXPERIENCE TONIO BORG 113 METHODOLOGY AND OUR ISLAND II A HUMANITARION MISSION 37 MGR. ALFRED VELLA 8 9 abbreviations ECTHR/STRASBOURG COURT/HUMAN RIGHTS European Court of Human Rights COURT IOM International Organisation for Migration IO International Organisation JRS Jesuit Refugee Service LYSTER BARRACKS Detention centre in Ħal Far MEAE Ministry for European Affairs and Equality MJHA Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs MHAS Ministry of Home Affairs and National Security MNE Migrant Network for Equality NGO Non-Governmental Organisation Organisation for the Integration and Welfare of OIWAS Asylum-Seekers REFCOM Office of the Refugee Commissioner SAFI BARRACKS Detention centre in Ħal Safi A form of international protection granted to SUBSIDIARY PROTECTION persons fleeing situations of generalised violence TA’ KANDJA Detention centre in Ta’ Kandja, Siġġiewi THPN Temporary Humanitarian Protection New UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 10 INTRODUCTION 11 introduction neil falzon In the years between 2002 and 2016 Malta received over 21,000 asylum applications, with a yearly average of around 1,625 new applications. Over 80% of these applicants reached Malta by boat, having left north Africa – usually Libya – after arduous journeys taking them through African countries and the Sahara Desert. In the early years, most applicants were Somalis fleeing the on-going war ravaging the country, followed by Eritreans seeking refuge from a brutal regime. More recently, due to the escalation of violence in Libya and Syria, Malta has provided refuge to relatively large numbers of refugees from these two war-torn countries. Throughout, the requests for protection from these larger communities were accompanied by similar requests from persons hailing from over 30 countries, mainly African but not only. Overall, Malta’s rate of offering international protection exceeds 60% either in the form of refugee status or of subsidiary protection. National protection, in various forms, has also been granted to over 1,000 persons. Our Island: Personal Accounts of Protecting Refugees in Malta explains this data by presenting the professional, and often deeply personal, experiences of those people who interacted with the various elements triggered by the numbers. A cursory glance at the data immediately flags the most obvious of these elements. When equipped with a slightly more analytical perspective, the reader is made aware of an array of Neil is the Director of aditus foundation themes, questions and challenges that Malta experienced throughout those years. The and a human rights lawyer. Between accounts we are presenting in Our Island offer most of these in-depth perspectives, 2005 and 2009 he headed the hoping to cover as broad a range of themes as possible in a single publication. Malta office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. At Understanding the context is fundamental. A new European Union Member State the University of Malta, he lectures (Malta joined the EU in 2004), Malta was a relatively homogeneous society, had a international and national human rights strong and stable economy and ranked first in the EU in terms of population density. law to students of law and social work Its asylum legislation and relevant institutions were in their infancy. Until then, Malta respectively. was not responsible for refugees coming here, these being processed and resettled 12 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 13 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. There was no formal system automatically detained all refugees apprehended attempting to enter Malta in an to receive and support refugees, and no evident intentions to establish one either. It irregular manner. The former Minister’s perspective gives Our Island a tonal balance is not surprising that when the first boats arrived, packed with ravaged bodies and that provides a more comprehensive historical take on the theme whilst also acting minds, the island was wholly unprepared. as a useful political context for the following contributions. What followed were extremely busy and stressful years for the nation, as it was It is in this context that Alfred Vella’s humanitarian activities are positioned, through exposed to harsh realities, previously undreamt about, of people living in faraway the invaluable work done by the Malta Emigrants’ Commission. Being one of the first countries that most in Malta had never even heard of. Not only was the exposure entities involved in Malta’s protection of refugees, seeing the arrival of refugees in a sudden one, but it brought with it the expectation to live up to legal and moral the 1970’s, the Commission’s institutional memory is by far the most precious one. obligations that might have been familiar to the nation’s Roman Catholic ethos, but His contribution highlights the material aspect of protecting refugees, in terms of the uncomfortable in the way it pushed basic notions of equality and dignity to the top need to ensure a dignified life through providing – at times – the most basic essentials: of Malta’s political but also social agenda. Where we stand today in relation to these housing, clothes, food and water, health. What his contribution further underlines, as same basic notions and how we understand them in the context of refugees and also echoed throughout the book, is the central role played by civil society actors in other migrants, is far from our starting point, yet also far from a situation that fully ensuring the provision of these basic essentials in a context of under-resourced or, at embraces the refugee as a friend, a neighbour, a welcome guest.
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