Although the world has made huge advances in its quality of life, the phenomenon of globalisation is creating millions of poor people who set out in search of a better life, creating the phenomenon of immigration, said Education, Youth and Employment Minister Louis Galea yesterday.
Dr Galea, who was speaking at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, said that it is important to recognise the unorganised, non-monetarised, sector of the working world – a sector clearly predominant in developing countries but which is also extensive even in highly-developed countries.
“Malta, from where thousands migrated during the last century, is now becoming a transit – and to a lesser extent a destination – country. In a country which is among the most densely populated areas in the world, illegal migration has become one of the most significant and complex policy challenges for the Maltese government. The phenomenon is challenging the texture of our values and culture and is stretching the government’s human and financial resources.”
Dr Galea said that thousands are fleeing poverty, insecurity, war, or under-development from several countries and a number of them end up in Malta, very often in transit.
“The tragic stories carried in the media are only the tip of the iceberg of the gravest risks these people face to their human rights and fundamental freedoms when they are recruited, transported and employed in defiance of the law”.
He explained that while the global number of the extremely poor, taken as those living on $1 a day or less, fell from nearly 1.5 billion in 1981 to just under 1.1 billion in 2001, in Africa the ratio has increased from 42 per cent to 47 per cent.
“The number of migrants has increased by some six million a year since the 1990s, reaching some 230 million international migrants recorded by 2005. Were these to form a single political entity they would represent the world’s fifth most populous country. Women account for 49 per cent of the world’s migrants.
“Between 10 and 15 per cent of migrants are of irregular status.”
Dr Galea said that while international cooperation in providing humanitarian assistance and implementing security programmes will continue to be important, development aid is a much more effective strategy for preventing violent conflicts, promoting reconciliation and democratisation, and encouraging poverty-reducing development investment by migrant diasporas.
“Malta and its government will continue to actively participate in the relevant international and regional fora and to make its contribution for the better management of the phenomenon of migration and for the eradication of the political and economic causes that force human beings to abandon and flee the countries where they have been born and bred”, he said.