The news that only six EU countries have so far shown solidarity with Malta in shouldering the migration influx and participate in the pilot project proposed by the European Commission, although others are said to be showing ‘strong interest’, is indeed surprising considering the relatively very heavy burden being faced by our country.
The Malta Independent (23 September) also reports that if Malta’s population were to be considered as one million, the number of asylum seekers from April to June this year would have been 1,300. Referring to Eurostat results just published, the report states that in reality, it was 536. However, when rounding up the figures to be proportionate to each one million inhabitants, it is clear that Malta gets the highest percentage of asylum seekers in the EU. Indeed, with this same proportionality, the Netherlands would have got 230, France 170, Germany just 80, and Italy, which makes so much noise about asylum seekers, a mere 85.
Maybe one should also consider the following:
Asylum trend statistics for 2008, as they result in a June 2009 publication by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service of The Netherlands reveal that when considered according to country area size, “Malta received by far and away the largest number of asylum applications in Europe: 8.254 per 1.000 sq km, more than 100 times more than the EU average (55 per 1.000 sq km)”. Cyprus and Belgium ranked second and third at a large distance with about 10 times more applications than the EU average. The five countries – France, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Greece – that received most applications in 2008 in absolute terms, received also more than the EU average compared to their country size.
When it comes to the number of asylum applications in 2008 related to population size, Malta is again at the top of the list. It received most applications in relation to its population size: 6.349 applications per million inhabitants, 13.2 times more than the EU average (481 applications per million inhabitants). Cyprus (x9.0) and Sweden (x5.6) are ranked second and third.
The story goes on: the statistics regarding the number of asylum applications in 2008 related to GDP size (in purchasing power standard) arranged in decreasing order, show Malta on top once more. Indeed, Malta, Cyprus and Sweden were the numbers one, two and three, with 16.9 and 9.8 and 4.6 times respectively more applications in relation to GDP size than the EU average.
The publication also includes an overview of all indicators of country size (area, population and GDP) related to number of asylum applications in 2008. “It reveals that in 2008 Malta received in Europe the far and away largest number of asylum applications in relation to its country size when taking the three indicators of country size together (59.6 times more than average in the EU). The distance with the other European countries is massive: Cyprus and Belgium ranked second and third receiving an average of 9.9 and 5.1 times more applications in relation to their country size than the EU average.”
One of course understands that Malta is inevitably a participant in the process of globalisation, that it cannot escape it, that it will continue to experience migratory flows perhaps for several more years to come, and that in its response to this challenge to solidarity it needs to continue to also witness humanity and compassion.
One also recognises our country’s international and moral responsibilities to protect genuine refugees and people in a refugee-like situation really in need of international protection. The figures themselves show that Malta has been and continues to be just and humane in its response vis-à-vis asylum seekers. The high percentage of applicants who are granted some form of international protection in Malta speaks for itself.
At the same time, it is a fact that the inevitable contingencies resulting from the arrival of relatively big and disproportionate waves of irregular immigrants place big strains on Malta’s limited resources. A glance at the kind of impact the boat-people experience has had and continues to have on the available resources of key sectors which, apart from the Armed Forces of Malta, also include the Police Force, Health Care and Social Services is enough to help one understand the extent of the problem. In fact, it is widely acknowledged that Malta cannot offer durable solutions to big numbers of boat people reaching its shores.
This is why Malta needs so much the concrete support and effective solidarity of the international community (especially the EU) and of individual states. It is a matter of real cooperation for responsibility and burden sharing, according to the individual countries’ real possibilities.