Accompany
Detainees

Country Offices

JRS Malta - www.jrsmalta.org
 

Political Developments There were no substantial political developments in 2007. The number of arrivals remained stable at around 1,700, slightly less than last year, while there was no change in the legislation governing migration and in the policy of mandatory detention of all who arrive in boats. No further transposition of EU directives into local legislation took place, so that the Qualification Directive is still not transposed. This year has also seen the appearance of a new political party, Azzjoni Nazzjonali AN, on the right of the political spectrum, with a clearly anti-immigrant stance among its main policies. The highlight this year was undoubtedly the Nansen Award by UNHCR to Katrine Camilleri, the head of the legal and advocacy team, and the main driving force and inspiration at JRS Malta. This was seen as recognition of the validity of the work and methods used by JRS Malta under Katrine’s inspiration.

JRS Activities

Detention

JRS Malta continues to focus on detention, offering legal, social work and pastoral services. The team provided legal information regarding rights and procedures to all new arrivals, and more in depth legal assistance mostly to vulnerable cases so that they can obtain their release more speedily. According to present Maltese policy vulnerable persons are not detained. The office is available for all those who wish to use it to receive or send identity papers and other documents as they prepare to present their case for asylum. In all this, the role of the social worker is central: when JRS staff identify vulnerable cases, the social worker refers them to the government agency and follows up the case for a speedy release. This year the social worker was ably helped by a nurse who has been seconded from government service for one year to work with JRS.

Advocacy

JRS Malta was the lead agency in the delivery of an EU funded project documenting the detention conditions in the 10 new Member States of the European Union. Meetings were held in Brussels and in Malta to plan the work, draw up questionnaires and guidelines for research to be carried out in the single states. Each country prepared a national report, and these, together with the regional report, were presented at a conference held in Malta in October 2007.

JRS Malta participated in various meetings with other stakeholders, especially other NGOs present in the field and with government officials. One very important development was the filing of a court case by a detainee who claimed that his detention and the conditions in the detention centre were in breach of Malta’s human rights obligations.

Social Assistance

The Sexual and Gender Based Violence project, financed by UNHCR, increased JRS Malta’s work with migrants, both outside and inside the detention centres. With the help of two cultural mediators and a psychologist, JRS Malta was able to communicate with women from different cultures and learn about their traumatic experiences. A small medical mission from Medecins du Monde cooperated with JRS Malta for a few months in 2007. They were able to share their expertise in this area. This project also helped to develop a successful health education and promotion programme which was offered in the closed and the open centres with the help of UNHCR and other NGOs.

Awareness Raising

In 2007 JRS Malta was able to expand its work in this area through the ‘We are all equal’ EU funded project. JRS Malta visited more than 40 schools and community centres and organised a number of public theatrical performances including two public theatrical performances by Natasha Marjanovic, a Bosnian actress living in Portugal about her experience of being a migrant, and a walk though theatre portraying the journey of an African family. These performances were watched by 500 students, who also had the opportunity to view and discuss a 30 minute DVD about racism and discrimination.

Pastoral

A small group of Jesuits regularly celebrated mass on Sundays for the Christian detainees; the highlight was a series of nine masses organised on Christmas Day by eight Jesuit priests.

The Jesuit General Superior, Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, visited the Safi detention centre on 7 October 2007, during his visit to Malta.

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