Ardous journeys

Immigrants often have ardous journeys behind them when they finally arrive in Malta, writes Ute Schaeffer for Deutsche Welle:

Three years ago, Jonas set out to make the long and dangerous journey to Europe from his home country, Eritrea. There was absolutely no reason to stay there, he said. Although Jonas finished high school with good marks and had found a job working for an oil company, his wages in Eritrea weren't nearly enough to feed his family.

"My aim was to get to Europe and get a better education and find a good job," he said. "Eritreans are people without hope. I wanted to have a chance in life, and I also wanted be able to give something back to my people.". But Jonas didn't expect that the crossing would be so dangerous. Many of his fellow passengers fell overboard during the journey and were left to drown. Others died of starvation on board.

Jonas was on his way to Italy, a common destination for boats leaving the coast of Africa. But as happens with many other unseaworthy vessels, his boat was picked up by a maritime patrol, and he ended up being interned in Malta. Jonas was released after a year, and now lives in a church-run refugee center.

A former British colony located 100km (62 miles) south of Sicily and 200km north of Libya, Malta has 405,000 inhabitants packed into seven tiny islands. It's the second most densely populated country in the world, and it's not happy about having to house illegal immigrants.

Malta, however, has a comparatively liberal and humanitarian refugee policy. Those who receive a humanitarian residency permit -- mainly given to people from countries affected by civil war and internal conflicts such as Somalia -- are allowed to live in refugee accommodation. Under European Union law, asylum seekers must stay in the European country they first arrive in. Although Malta is so tiny, it is a sovereign member of the EU, so anyone who lands is stuck there...

AFP: Accidental immigrants