No plans to deport children of failed asylum seekers, minister insists

Home affairs minister Carmelo Abela has thrown cold water on reports that Malta-born children of failed Eritrean asylum seekers will be deported, but in the same breath refused to commit to not deporting migrant children in the future.

“I don’t know if that story is true or invented,” the minister told MaltaToday at a press conference, a few seconds before insisting that the story was “a false one that keeps being repeated”.

“The story claims that the migrants are Eritrean, when as a matter of fact most Eritrean migrants manage to get protection. If these two child migrants come from an Eritrean family, then why didn’t they get protection?”

However, Abela refused to pledge not to deport any migrant children back to Africa, instead insisting that he “will abide by Maltese and EU legislation”.

MaltaToday on Sunday revealed that a married couple who have been in Malta since 2005 – as well as their two children who were born in the country – will be deported to Eritrea in August 2017.

This is because their Temporary Humanitarian Protection –N(ew) [THP-n], which the government has decided to stop issuing, will expire on that date.

When asked by MaltaToday why the government has decided to stop the Office of the Refugee Commissioner from issuing THP-n permits, Abela said that “we didn’t feel it was the right office to take care of it”.

“The role of the Office of the Refugee Commissioner should not be to provide alternatives for failed asylum seekers, and the way forward is to protect those who qualify for asylum and deport those who don’t,” he said.

“A failed asylum seeker will always be a failed asylum seeker irrespective of when they arrive, and this action is fully in line with Maltese and EU legislation.”

He vehemently denied that the government’s decision to stop issuing THP-n permits stemmed from a desire to appease to anti-immigrant public sentiment.

“If we wanted to appease to public sentiment, then we wouldn’t have participated in the EU’s scheme to relocate migrants from Italy and Greece. Indeed, Malta is at the forefront of that scheme and has already relocated 53% of the migrants it pledged to relocate.”

Abela was speaking at a press conference following bilateral negotiations with his Austrian counterpart Wolfgang Sobolka ahead of Malta’s upcoming stint at the head of the EU rotating presidency in January.

Sobolka said that Austria’s position on immigration was in tandem with Malta’s, in particular noting the island’s call for the EU to negotiate with Tunisia on stemming flows of irregular migrants to Europe.

“So long as the Schengen Zone’s external borders are not secure, then Austria will secure its internal borders,” he said. “However, I am optimistic that Malta’s presidency will result in progress on keeping migrant flows low, establishing regular migration routes, and developing appropriate return policies.”