“People are entitled to apply for asylum”

Published: July 11, 2013 at 10:01pm

malstrom

A point many are missing is this: it’s not that you can’t deport asylum seekers but that you can’t deport them without first hearing their case and deciding whether or not they are entitled to refugee status.

Link below.




11 Comments Comment

  1. La Redoute says:

    And please, it’s refoulement, not re-fowl-ment, a mistake repeatedly made over the past 48 hours. The correct pronunciation is French.

    • Tabatha White says:

      Has Hollande sent through his updated endorsement yet?

      What France does with its unpublicised policy in the Comores is to effectively provide a passport.

      When Sarkozy used to stop over for discussions, his meetings were not even communicated to the press and his trips were off the known itinerary.

    • Pandora says:

      Maybe it’s because they’re counting their chickens before they are hatched.

  2. Futur mill-aghar says:

    That is why they are called irregular immigrants rather than illegal immigrants. They are allowed to enter a country irregularly so that they can apply for a refugee status. It is not illegal to entry a country without the proper paper work if your intention is to seek asylum.

    • Antoine Vella says:

      All those who arrived in the last few days did not even enter Malta voluntarily. They were brought here by the AFM after they had been rescued at sea. We should be treating them as survivors not “illegal immigrants”.

    • Betty says:

      It is one of the Maltese Goverment’s international legal obligations to ensure that these vulnerable people risking their lives crossing the sea and brought to Malta are immediately given the choice of applying for Asylum very shortly after they land.

      The Refugee Commissioner has the staff and resources to process these applications and interview all new arrivals quickly.

      But to make his clumsy vote-catching point (min ghalih),the schoolyard bully considered sending them back. Buffu.

  3. george grech says:

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fV0tS6G8NNU

    Issa immaginaw li dawn kienu fuq dik id-daghjsa, Joseph kien jibghatom lura? U zgur li le. Anzi kien jghatihom id-dritt li jizzewgu u jirbah punti doppji.

  4. Samuel Azzopardi says:

    The difference lies between political and economic migrants. Economic migrants come from a ‘fairly safe’ and stable country and try their luck somewhere else. Those are normally returned back. Political migrants are those asylum seekers that need utmost protection because sending them back is tantamount to death or gross torture. They are given protection under international law. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat managed to denigrate this country by not even respecting the basic right to ask for asylum. Absolutely disgusting. He thinks Malta is Texas and he is John Wayne. Unbelievable.

  5. AE says:

    The French term of ‘sans papiers’ is more appropriate. You are hardly going to be thinking of grabbing your passport when you are fleeing for your life.

  6. AF says:

    Yes that is correct, Daphne. Everyone has the right to apply for asylum and have his/her case heard. in Malta this work is done by the Office of the Refugee Commissioner, an Office which is rarely mentioned in Malta and which is however doing sterling work.

    It is irrelevant whether asylum seekers are economic/political/religious asylum seekers etc… Once a person applies for asylum an interview is conducted with each and every asylum seeker and a decision is issued therein.

    Moreover asylum seekers have the right to consult UNHCR before, during and after these proceedings. This right was also taken away from them, when UNHCR was denied access to them.

    Below you can find the link to the Maltese Refugees Act which transcribes the 1951 Geneva Convention and the EU Qualifications Directive into Maltese law.
    http://justiceservices.gov.mt/DownloadDocument.aspx?app=lom&itemid=8886

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