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Three ministries will be joining hands with the UN high commissioner for refugees and other non-governmental organisations next Tuesday to mark World Refugee Day under the banner ‘hope’.
The ministry for home affairs, the ministry of education and employment and the ministry for social solidarity, in a rare show of unity at government level on the issue of immigration, will be commemorating World Refugee Day at a time when xenophobia and racism have dangerously reared their head in the wake of a renewed inflow of illegal immigrants.
“A person who leaves everything behind, family, job, studies, home, friends, must necessarily be accompanied by an enormous amount of hope,” Dolores Cristina, minister for social solidarity said yesterday.
“We need to meet this hope and through the process of application for status, turn it into a concrete future for refugees. We know that the hope of many of those reaching our shores is to continue to mainland European countries and this Government, together with the help of UNHCR and the Emigrant’s Commission, is also working to resettle refugees in other European countries,” she said.
Education Minister Louis Galea stressed on the need to develop hope in the countries of origin of these refugees and dwelt on the importance of education as a tool to achieve cultural understanding between people of different nations, both for refugees who reside in third countries and for the countries hosting them.
The representative of the UNHCR in Malta, Dr Neil Falzon stressed that this year’s theme will celebrate “the hope of refugees to start a new life in their first country of asylum, the hope to find the assistance and support to be able to rebuild their lives.”
On Tuesday information stands will be put up in Great Siege Square in Valletta from 8am to 2pm and in the evening, immigrants at the Marsa open centre will be organising an event which will also include the screening of the World Cup football match outdoors for which the public is invited to attend.
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