P 091910Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY VALLETTA
TO EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2066

C O N F I D E N T I A L VALLETTA 000169 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/09/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF MT
SUBJECT: MALTA: IMMIGRATION DEBATE ROILS POLITICAL SCENE 
 
REF: A. 08 VALLETTA 423 
     ¶B. VALLETTA 113 
     ¶C. VALLETTA 143 
 
Classified By: CDA Jason L. Davis, per 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: With 2008 and early 2009 bringing a record 
influx of African migrants to Malta from Libya, the issue of 
migration has risen to the top of the political agenda 
locally.  The GOM has been criticized by NGOs, UNHCR, and 
even the Catholic Church for its detention policy, and 
Medecins Sans Frontieres recently announced its withdrawal 
from the closed detention centers, attributing the decision 
to the GOM's unwillingness to deal with the "appalling" 
conditions in the centers.  EC Commissioner Jacques Barrot 
suggested in a recent visit that additional support for Malta 
from the EU might be forthcoming.  A parliamentary debate on 
the issue produced calls for quotas and increased 
burden-sharing within the EU; the debate took place against 
the backdrop of strongly anti-immigrant Maltese public 
opinion.  End summary. 
 
DETENTION POLICY DRAWS WIDESPREAD CRITICISM 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) With record numbers of immigrants arriving in 2008 
(a total of 2700, up from less than 2000 the previous year) 
and the first three months of 2009 (more than 750, during 
what is normally the off season due to weather conditions) 
the issue of immigration has risen to the top of the agenda 
for the GOM.  The GOM has been roundly criticized by NGOs, 
UNHCR, and -- most recently -- the Catholic Church, for its 
detention policy, according to which immigrants who arrive in 
Malta (normally after being rescued at sea in Malta's search 
and rescue area) are immediately detained upon arrival and 
held for up to 18 months (unless their asylum claim is 
approved, usually after 6-12 months, in which case they are 
released to an open center). Parliament debated the matter of 
immigration March 16-17, with opposition leader Joseph Muscat 
introducing an Action Plan that called for quotas on the 
number of migrants allowed to integrate and increased 
burden-sharing within the EU, as well as for improved 
conditions in the detention centers.  The Minister for 
Justice and Home Affairs said it would be a mistake to set 
quotas, but expressed gratitude that opposition leader Muscat 
had supported the GOM detention policy. 
 
MSF WITHDRAWS 
------------- 
 
¶3. (C) The debate came less than a week after Medecins Sans 
Frontiers (MSF) announced, on March 12, that it was 
withdrawing its personnel from the closed detention centers 
due to "appalling" and "inhumane" conditions and MSF's 
resulting inability to provide "adequate or effective 
treatment."   MSF attributed the decision to withdraw its 
personnel from the closed detention centers in Malta in part 
to the GOM's unwillingness to improve conditions in the 
centers.  MSF began operations in Malta six months ago, and 
had repeatedly emphasized the need for an "infirmary" 
(isolation center), pharmacy, and follow-up treatment for 
conditions diagnosed; MSF also criticized the GOM for 
detaining even some vulnerable individuals (though those are 
normally released relatively quickly), including minors and 
pregnant women.  With poor sanitary conditions, the health of 
those who arrived in good condition was deteriorating.  These 
concerns have been echoed, publicly and privately, by UNHCR 
Head of Office Neil Falzon and IOM Head of Office Maria 
Pisani (please protect). 
 
¶4. (SBU) MSF first notified the GOM that it was necessary to 
address these deficiencies in October 2008, but nearly six 
months later there was still no plan in place to remedy the 
situation.  Last fall a chicken pox outbreak among detainees 
had highlighted the need for an isolation center, so that the 
outbreak and others like it could be contained; MSF also 
alleged that due to the lack of a pharmacy in the closed 
detention centers, the migrants were not receiving medication 
until up to two weeks after it was prescribed. 
 
WORSE THAN DARFUR? 
------------------ 
 
¶5. (C) Representatives from the U.S.-based International 
Medical Corps (IMC) visited Malta March 16-18 at the 
invitation of Minister John Dalli to see if the IMC could 
provide medical care within the detention centers either 
alongside MSF, or possibly in lieu of it.  Jeff Goodman, a 
senior medical advisor with IMC, told Charge' after the 
group's visit to Safi Barracks, one of the closed detention 
centers, that the hopelessness of the detainees was unmatched 
even in camps in Darfur and northern Uganda, where there 
might be shortages of food or medicine, but where the 
inhabitants were treated with respect and had a clear sense 
that every effort was being made to address their needs. In 
Safi barracks at 11am, he reported, at least half of the 
residents had not even gotten out of their beds becuase there 
was "no reason" for them to do so. Goodman said he did not 
know whether IMC would be able to go into centers under such 
conditions, or what "value added" it might be able to 
provide. 
 
SEEKING EU SUPPORT 
------------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) EC Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security 
Jacques Barrot suggested during a March 14-15 visit that 
additional support for Malta from the EU might be 
forthcoming.  Malta had gone to extraordinary lengths to 
ensure (Ref A) that the principle of burden sharing was 
included in the EU Migration Pact for those countries "faced 
with specific and disproportionate pressures on their 
national asylum systems, due in particular to their 
geographical or demographic situation."  As the most densely 
populated country in the EU (Malta is an island 17 miles long 
and 8 miles wide with some 400,000 residents) this language 
was reportedly intended as a specific reference to Malta.  To 
date, only France has offered to take refugees from Malta 
under the burden-sharing mechanism. (The French offer to take 
one group of 80 refugees pales in comparison to the ongoing 
U.S. Resettlement Program, which has resettled some 222 
refugees from Malta in the past twelve months.) 
 
¶7. (SBU) Barrot said he had come to Malta to understand the 
challenges Malta faced with the disproportionate burden of 
migration it faces.  Barrot returned to Brussels convinced 
that Malta needed assistance with burden-sharing and 
additional resources to fund repatriation efforts and to 
improve reception facilities for migrants and asylum seekers. 
 Barrot also indicated that there was a need for the proposed 
EU Asylum Agency, which Malta has offered to host (Ref B), 
and increased engagement with Libya, which has proven to be a 
challenge (though Malta did sign a Search and Rescue 
Memorandum of Understanding with Libya in March 2009 (Ref C). 
 Barrot made it clear that Malta needed to improve conditions 
in the detention centers, and pointed out that there were 
additional funds that Malta could tap into for many of these 
efforts as the challenges require additional resources beyond 
what has already been allocated. 
 
PARLIAMENT DEBATES 
------------------ 
 
¶8. (SBU) The March 18-19 parliamentary debate likewise 
produced calls for increased burden-sharing within the EU. 
Opposition leader Joseph Muscat's 20-point action plan 
accepted the government,s detention policy, but advocated 
for improved conditions in the detention centers, including 
courses for the migrants to prepare them for life in the 
community, and more doctors in the centers.  Muscat asked the 
GOM to categorically state the number of migrants it could 
host and permanently integrate in a suitable and sustainable 
manner.  In conversations with Charge and PolOff, Alex 
Tortell, head of the GOM,s Organization for the Integration 
and Welfare of Asylum Seekers (OIWAS) dismissed that proposal 
on the grounds that it was impossible to calculate in advance 
how many migrants Malta could assimilate in light of 
fluctuating economic conditions. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Muscat criticized the GOM for not being stronger in 
promoting burden-sharing within the EU and not insisting on a 
timeframe by which the burden-sharing mechanism would become 
effective.  Muscat added that the Dublin II agreement should 
be revised, specifically the rule by which the EU country 
where the migrants landed retained responsibility for them. 
Pushing further, Muscat suggested that Malta should assist 
asylum seekers and then move them along, effectively 
interpreting Malta's international obligations in a different 
way.  Minister for Justice and Home Affairs Carmelo Mifsud 
Bonnici responded to Muscat,s plan by welcoming Muscat's 
support for their detention policy.  He then went on to state 
that Malta could not ignore its international obligations, 
which would have far greater implications, adding that Malta 
was not obliged to take all migrants who passed through 
Malta,s territorial waters, only those who were in distress. 
 Mifsud Bonnici moved on to say that Malta could not simply 
set out a  no vacancy, sign and set quotas on the number of 
migrants it received when there were migrants in distress off 
the coast. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Muscat,s plan did not mention the issue of 
repatriation, which is a key tenet of the Government,s plan. 
 Of the 12,000 migrants who have arrived in Malta in the past 
five years (a number representing 3% of Malta's own 
population), an estimated 5,200 remain; around 150 have been 
repatriated in recent months under a new Assisted Voluntary 
Return (AVR) program that offers immigrants who accept 
airline tickets back to their home country a 5,000 euro 
stipend; another 300 have been resettled, three-quarters of 
those to the U.S. and the rest to various EU countries; while 
the rest have apparently moved on by various other means, 
presumably to find jobs elsewhere in Europe.  Prime Minister 
Gonzi addressed AVR in Parliament, stating that Malta,s 
membership in the EU allowed it to work with other EU 
countries to effect the return of immigrants who did not 
qualify for protected status. (Currently, the GOM does not 
have the diplomatic channels in place with many sub-Saharan 
African countries where the failed asylum seekers come from, 
but per the EU Migration Pact, Malta could rely on fellow EU 
Member States to assist in the repatriation efforts.) 
 
ANTI-IMMIGRANT PUBLIC SENTIMENT 
DOESN'T STOP THE BISHOP OF GOZO 
------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Public sentiment in Malta is opposed to spending 
funds to improve conditions at the camps or providing 
expanded social services to immigrants, who are frequently 
subjected to intolerant (though almost never violent) 
treatment by Maltese nationals (even American citizens of 
African descent are sometimes refused entrance to nightclubs 
or not allowed to board public buses). With the recent riots 
by 500 failed asylum seekers at Safi barracks, the largest of 
the closed detention centers, in which mattresses were 
burned, classroom equipment destroyed and two officials 
injured, anti-immigrant sentiment against the migrants is 
currently running higher than ever.  On April 3, Mario Grech, 
the Bishop of Gozo, surprised the overwhelmingly devout Roman 
Catholic population of the country by sharply criticizing the 
GOM detention policy, asking &Is it possible that a 
civilized country such as (Malta), having the values we think 
we are defined by, sees nothing wrong in keeping locked in 
detention women and men who committed no crime and who are 
only here because they are seeking another country,s 
protection?8 Grech called for an &honest, sincere and 
level-headed assessment8 of the current policy. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶12. (C) While the GoM is taking slow steps to improve some of 
the conditions in the closed centers -- for example by 
replacing leaky, drafty tents with newly acquired caravans -- 
progress has been extremely slow.  The issue is not so much 
funding, as EU funds do seem to be available, but poor 
organizational skills, an overtaxed bureacracy (including the 
fact that the centers are badly overcrowded, making 
renovations extremely difficult), and, unfortunately, a sense 
among some mid-ranking government officials that improving 
conditions or shortening the detention period might create a 
"pull factor" (currently there are almost no immigrants who 
want to come to Malta; nearly all are brought here after 
being rescued at sea while en route to Italy).  Most 
observers believe this fear to be misplaced, but it is real. 
The Prime Minister and other senior officials are sympathetic 
to the plight of the detainees, but have so far not managed 
to motivate the bureaucracy.  We are somewhat hopeful that 
recent attention from the EU, and the new anti-detention 
policy enunciated by local Catholic Church leaders, might 
begin to change the dynamic for the better, and we will 
continue to use the goodwill engendered by our resettlement 
program to nudge the GOM to improve on camp conditions. 
 
 
DAVIS