Time for an update of fact from The Times of 09MAY09.

“In 2008, Malta accepted 52.5 per cent of the asylum claims made, almost twice as many as the EU average which stood at 26.8 per cent. In fact, last year, Malta processed a total of 2,685 claims and accepted 1,410 applications.

The Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici had recently spoken about this, saying the EU were afraid of sharing the burden because they thought Malta had a liberal system which awarded protection with ease. Instead, he argued, the high figures stemmed from the fact that many of Malta’s migrants were people who deserve protection.”

Seems like I was not hallucinating after all.

My original point was that in this manner we are making the island a lucrative destination of choice. [Daphne – You’re joking, right? The most lucrative destination of choice is the United Kingdom, where they are all heading, but it’s a little bit difficult to get there by sea from Libya.] I don’t believe that most illegal immigrants end up here by chance. [Daphne – You’re not a sailor, then.]

http://www.tonioborg.com/docs/news/asylumseekersconference.pdf

I’m sure I’ve heard Tonio Borg repeat this statement a number of times over the years, but I thought this was a discussion blog, not a thesis.

[Daphne – It’s a blog owned and operated by somebody for whom words have a precise meaning, and who has no patience for people who think like they’re suffering from a bad case of the mental runs.]

[Daphne – Actually, I was about to raise the issue of why Henry Frendo is allowed to sit on the Refugee Appeals Board when his contributions to the media on the subject of immigration display simmering xenophobic tendencies, suspicion of The Other, and shall I suggest…just the merest hint of racism?]

From this extract then it appears that those with refugee status are entitled for social benefits, and that they now expect more including social housing: “As things stand, unless the migrants are given refugee status, they cannot apply for social assistance in the same way Maltese people can. Katrine Camilleri, a human-rights lawyer, said even those with subsidiary protection should be entitled to core social welfare benefits – but Malta did not yet have such a mechanism in place. “Malta does not yet have a system for migrants to obtain financial assistance once they have left the centres,” she said.”

If memory serves me well from a press report quoting Tonio Borg a few years back. Also from other press reports such as this extract “Dr Falzon said at least 60 per cent of asylum seekers who landed in Malta were granted some form of protection status. “This figure proves that the majority of those who arrive cannot be sent back without having their application processed,” he explained.

[Daphne – Oh, very well researched and argued: a vaguely remembered press report of something that Tonio Borg may or may not have said a few years ago. And an article in which Dr Falzon rightly claims that 60 per cent of asylum seekers are granted ‘some form of protection status’. How does that make Malta “the country which grants the highest percentage of refugee status”? Our schools have failed….]

Does Muscat ever queue for anything? I was on holiday in Malta last December. Two of my children went over to a candy floss stand. They stood there for ten minutes at the top of the queue, ignored and trampled on because they were speaking English and didn’t know the rules of the Maltese jungle. At the end of it I had to go over myself and give the seller a piece of my mind in Maltese. They were served after that.

I am not that familiar with EU border regulations but wouldn’t that particular regulation be redundant now Malta’s a Schengen country?

[Daphne – Border regulations have nothing to do with it. With or without border controls, you need permission to live and work in the EU if you are not an EU citizen. The fact that you have refugee status in Malta does not mean you have a Maltese passport.]

[Daphne – They can travel abroad, but must live and work in Malta, or wherever they were given refugee status.]

http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2008/03/21/friday-21-march-1130hrs/

Thank you for pointing out David Grillo’s article. I’d have liked it to be printed in The Times. Then maybe some of the racists, who are always so ready to write a venomous comment, would have seen some sense.