The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is opening an office in Malta. Bernard Busuttil spoke with Chief of Mission Peter Schatzer, who is also Chief of Mission in Italy.

Which responsibilities fall under your supervision within the IOM?

I am the director for the Mediterranean regional office as well as the Chief of Mission in Italy and Malta. We have offices in Spain, Portugal, France, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya. These offices are under my responsibility as director, but they have their own Chief of Mission. But for Malta, Director General Brunson McKinley felt that it was important that I take over the responsibility of the Maltese office

How do the problems in Malta compare with those of the other Mediterranean countries, especially in the light of the divide between the north and south Mediterranean?

I think Malta has a very particular situation because of its size and the lack of a hinterland. When you land in Lampedusa or the Canary Islands and you don’t get deported, then after a while you are taken to Sicily or mainland Spain and from there many people move on. So basically Lampedusa or the Canary Islands have the whole of the Schengen area as their hinterland. This is not the case for Malta although this might change once Malta joins Schengen. It will be much easier to travel as there will be no passport controls but identity controls.

And then of course everything happened in a relatively short period of time, since the beginning of this century, and therefore nobody was really prepared for this influx of illegal immigrants.

But it also needs to be added that until a few years ago many people who landed in Malta would be taken on by resettlement countries such as the US, which then stopped when Malta joined the EU as now Malta became considered as a safe country for resettlement.

Now your government has been arguing, and we have been assisting it, with some of these countries that there is still a crisis and therefore resettlement is still necessary. We have been able to resettle small numbers but still quite important groups, in the US, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Germany.

So you do agree that there is an acute problem in Malta...

We do agree that Malta needs attention and international help. We have also noticed that you have some side effects of mass arrivals in the local population. There are people who are uncomfortable about it, people who show signs of xenophobia, which is fear of the unknown. I understand there were also some expressions of racism, and all this happens in societies that are not prepared.

However, the government is reacting and is setting up a group that deals with integration and we are offering our assistance to see how good practices gained in Europe can be applied here in Malta.

Is the situation in Lampedusa or the Canary Islands more acute than in Malta?

Lampedusa is different as people arrive there and within 24 to 48 hours they are moved to the mainland. Sometimes you have two, three or four hundred people in the centre, which was built to accommodate maybe 180 or 190 people; but they are moved out soon afterwards.

The same applies for the Canary Islands. They had about 30,000 arrivals, but then they move to the mainland and are distributed, so there is a very different situation; much more visible probably. You haven’t had boats since October, I understand, while in the Canary Islands they get boats any time there is good weather. We had none in the last days, but last week we had a boat in Lampedusa.

So you can’t really compare the situation, especially for the fact people who land in Malta are stuck there.

How do you rate government services provided to the immigrants?

I have not yet seen detention centres, my colleagues have and I don’t think they are up to European standards. But then again, my organisation is not here to criticise but to see if we can improve things and so we have extended our offer to the government to work on making conditions both in the closed and open centres more humane. I have had signals that the offer is being looked at with interest.

Then there is the issue of who is going to be paying for this, given Malta’s limited resources. The government is trying to probe into European funds that might be available. We have had an experience in Lampedusa where I opened an office last year, which was mostly funded by the European Commission with funds from ARGO and some funding from the Italians. Because of our presence we managed to help improve conditions.

Another issue is how to keep people occupied, because if there is one thing that is driving people crazy it is doing nothing for 18 months. Our social unit, which is also part of my home office, will be ready to be involved in this. We need to work with Maltese specialists.

I wish to point out that statistics show that a small number of people who land in Malta are ultimately given refugee status. Then you have a large percentage who are given humanitarian status, but nearly the majority are driven by economic reasons, not by fear of persecution.

How has the response to your work been until now? Has the government been cooperative? What about other organisations?

In the beginning, there was some scepticism when we first met with authorities three years ago or so. Scepticism about whether anybody can change the situation, and maybe also some unrealistic expectations of stopping flows of migrants at source and within a short time. That was obviously not going to work.

Since then we embarked on joint projects with the government and had very good talks with Minister Tonio Borg, Minister Dolores Cristina and Minister Michael Frendo. In 2003 Malta became a member of IOM, and that coincided with my arrival in the region.

Since then, cooperation has really improved and developed really nicely. I think this is because we are not siding with anyone; we are not siding with the migrants, the government or the opposition; we are just trying to find issues of common concern and helping in the situation.

Have you met the party in opposition or organisations who have an interest in the issue?

Last November, during a conference in Malta, I met the opposition home affairs spokesman Gavin Gulia and will meet him again during my visit. He is also much concerned about the issue and is very solution oriented and the same holds for Dr Borg.

Then about two years ago, I had my first contact with Mgr Philip Calleja from the Emigrants Commission and we have very close contacts with the United Nations Commission for Refugees. They are sort of our sister organisation when it comes to migration, because they take care of asylum seekers and refugees. There is also an advantage that the UNHCR regional bureau dealing with Malta is also based in Rome, so we communicate very closely there.

Migrants who land in other islands are taken to the mainland. What is the procedure?

First of all unaccompanied minors, and this is a growing concern, are entered in certain systems and are taken over by a judge who is put in charge of them. If migrants are asylum seekers, then they can claim asylum and can become part of the refugee programme.

If they are neither of the two, it depends, some of them are deported because of their nationality and because there are agreements with their home country. This is mainly the case for Egyptians, they come in large numbers, and this is also the case for some of the Moroccans, although their identification takes a bit longer. Morocco wants to make sure that it only gets Moroccans back and not other nationalities who might create problems in the country.

Others are kept for up to 60 days in detention centres, the maximum detention period. Then they are either given humanitarian permits or are told to go away. Then it is up to the respective countries to decide what to do.

Italy for example has various regularisation programmes every few years where people who find jobs can apply to regularise their status. That is one way to get them into the labour market. And it is the same in Spain.

Are there any countries that are willing to take people from their country of origin?

The reason why people take the irregular route is that there are so few legal opportunities where labour markets are available. Countries in southern Europe are reacting to this by setting up quotas. For example Italy has recently announced a quota of 80,000 for temporary workers in agriculture and tourism for this year. The quota can be filled by countries that have agreements with Italy on managing migration. Spain has quotas as well.

The problem is that there is no unified EU policy as some countries are strictly against it. They want to protect their own labour market and get their own unemployed first into jobs although many of the unemployed are not suitable or do not want these jobs. However, these countries are putting pressure on them by changing the rules and making it tougher for them to get unemployment benefits.

There are different approaches in Europe from one country to another. In a way, migrants and also their smugglers are a leverage on the different policies.

Which is the most common way of entering a country illegally?

Most migrants that arrive irregularly do not come by boat. Most of them come with a visa, real or fake. They come as tourists and then over-stay. I would assume the same applies for Malta. Boats are very visible and the human drama connected with these trips is very moving. People die in the desert while trying to reach northern Africa, others die when the boats sink. That is what it makes it more visible. But the real important routes to Europe are not the ones through the Canaries, Lampedusa or Malta, but through airports, and they pose as regular traffic.

Is it realistic to envisage the international community helping countries of origin to deal with their internal problems in order to reduce flows?

Absolutely, that is the solution because we have to help them reduce economic and political pressures that lead to migration. The idea is that everyone should be able to remain in their country and only those who really want to would leave their country. But there is a lot to do as regards development cooperation and regular migration programmes with countries of origin.

Are there any tangible improvements that can be foreseen in Malta in the future?

We have started working on assisted voluntary return programmes with the government. This is not a very big programme but there are always some who want to go back.

Another project will look at the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings. Women are being sold into prostitution and there is a growing realisation that this might be of concern in Malta. It is a hidden phenomenon yet but we can work on that together.

There is also the situation in the centres where we are ready to help and there is also the health issue. It is not that migrants carry diseases but they might have diseases of which local medics would not know.

Finally there is also the social situation of migrants and the whole issue of integration in the Maltese

society.