Destination Malta

Writing in Shift Mag, Judith Zijlstra and Tjerk Destombes from the University of Utrecht, say that Malta bears the brunt of the European refugee problem. They were in Malta earlier this year in the frame of the Destination Europe project:

“600 Africans perished at sea”, “Spanish coastguard intercepts boat with refugees again”... In the past few years, news reports about Africans travelling in perilous boats, looking for a better life in Europe have filled many headlines in the European media. For these refugees, Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and Lampedusa in Italy were the most popular destinations. However, much less known are the thousands of African refugees that Malta has been receiving since 2000.

Boat refugees often don’t choose to arrive in Malta, a member of the European Union since 2004. Most are on their way to Italy but get into difficulty at sea. As Malta is responsible for rescuing people in need, in an enormous section of the Mediterranean Sea (250,000m2, which is 791 times her own surface area), it often happens that refugees unwillingly have to apply for asylum in Malta..

..Marsa’s open refugee centre, located in Malta’s harbour area, used to be a school. It is able to accommodate 400 refugees. At present, 1,600 people live there - 1,599 men and one woman. Most of the refugees are from Somalia, but there are also considerable numbers of refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan; regions where there has been a lot of unrest in the past, or where the situation is still unbearable. The people living in the Marsa centre can be considered real survivors: for every refugee that has made it to Malta, four have died at sea...