During the four day seminar, which ran from Tuesday to Friday, representatives from various NGOs highlighted the issues and problems encountered when working with asylum seekers. One of the issues raised was the difficulty in bringing together people from different cultural backgrounds, with detainees from contrasting cultures refusing to have anything to do with each other.

Refugee Commissioner Charles Buttigieg said that since his office started processing cases in January 2002, 1,267 cases involving 1,544 people had been dealt with. Of these, 500 applications had been refused, 40 applications were withdrawn, 78 applicants were granted refugee status and 749 were granted humanitarian status. Those granted humanitarian status were mainly Somalis, due to the confused state of their country, which still has no government. At present, 122 applications are being processed and another 151 cases are still pending.

The review process is long, as each case is investigated individually and sometimes the applicants have no documents to support their claims.

Most of the participants spoke out against the deplorable state of the detention and open centres. On the other hand, the representatives all praised the efforts and work of the police and the Armed Forces of Malta personnel, especially when they are working under such difficult conditions. As a result of the overcrowding at Safi barracks, up to 12 people were living in the same room. The close proximity, with so many people who are strangers and total lack of privacy, puts enormous strain on the detainees.

If a detainee escapes, the soldiers are held responsible, and face disciplinary action. Antoinette Zammit from Malta Red Cross pointed out that soldiers are placed under further pressure and this leads to many resigning from the army and problems at home.

Apart from the language and cultural barriers separating the detainees and soldiers there is also the problem of mentality. The soldiers are trained and have a military mentality which clashes with the civilian mentality of the refugees. Captain Michael Cardona from AFM’s first regiment and Major Brian Gatt from the third regiment said that soldiers and detainees often disagree on standards of cleanliness. Other problems are vandalism of the property and diseases such as TB and scabies which have not been around in Malta since the war.

There is still a lot of prejudice towards asylum seekers and refugees according to Fr Pierre Grech Marguerat from the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). Although many Maltese help through donations to various entities, the general attitude is of intolerance. It is important to change people’s attitudes and create awareness about the asylum seekers’ situation. When the refugees are released from the detention centres, they experience problems integrating with society. Ms Zammit stressed the importance of accepting the asylum seekers for what they were and not trying to change them according to our standards. All over the world, society is multi-cultural and Malta cannot remain isolated Fr Grech said that in order to become multi-cultural “we need to work on integration and not assimilation”.

Young people should become involved in easing the situation of asylum seekers. Ms Zammit said that it has become fashionable for young people to go abroad to certain countries such as Kenya, on missionary work. However, instead of going abroad to help, a lot of help is needed here in Malta – especially when dealing with asylum seekers.

David Grillo of Dar-is-Sliem spoke about their work with unaccompanied minors. Problems crop occur when trying to assess whether an asylum seeker actually is a minor, due to the lack of documents. It is also difficult to base a decision on physical appearance, since this is not reliable. He suggested the setting up of an assessment team which would make it easier to tackle the problem instead of leaving the responsibility to one individual.

Most of the minors accommodated at Dar is-Sliem have great problems in creating a bond with the carers. This is understandable because of the great emotional and physical loss they have already suffered as a result of the escape from their homeland. The children often distrust the carers and do their utmost to push them away, so that they will not be hurt again.

When minors turn 18, they are no longer able to remain at Dar is-Sliem. Although they are not immediately destitute, it is a big problem for the person involved to find accommodation and employment. It is also a big shift from living in a community and Dar is-Sliem are trying to solve this problem. Mr Grillo appealed to the government to help find a better solution.

The lack of cooperation between the various organisations does not help improve the asylum seekers’ situation. Labour MP Joe Abela spoke about the work done by the Peace Lab with refugees and pointed out that unless all the organisations involved cooperate, no solution will be reached.

The seminar was opened by Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and the concluding address was given by Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina.