Students’ council strikes out against ‘inhumane’ deportation of migrants

The University Students’ Council (KSU) has come out strongly against the government’s plan to deport nine migrants back to Mali.

In a strongly-worded statement, the KSU lambasted the deportation plans as “inhumane” and “radical”, noting that some of the migrants in line for deportation have integrated into Maltese society.

“It is important to note that these migrants have not just landed on our shores, but are well-integrated into Maltese society, with a few of them having had children in the country who now go to school with other Maltese students,” the KSU said. “These children, whom we are bound to give paramount consideration to, will most definitely be negatively affected when they’re taken away from their friends, academic schedule and all other aspects of their life in Malta.

“When taking into consideration the adults without children, these people too have integrated to a high degree and it would be traumatic, as well as inhumane, to send them back to their homeland after having accepted them here and allowing them to live here for such a long time.

“The KSU has kept its silence on the topic to be able to collect the facts and make an educated and balanced statement. However, such silence cannot go on any further. It is upsetting knowing that such inhumane treatment is being carried out on Maltese soil.” 

The Refugee Commissioner has since 2010 been issuing Temporary Humanitarian Protection –New (THp-n) statuses to failed asylum seekers as an ex-gratia type of protection to over-ride removal orders. However, the government has recently decided to scrap the programme, meaning that removal orders are once more kicking in for those under THP-n protection. 

33 migrants had originally been arrested and detained at the Safi detention centre as part of an EU joint programme to return failed asylum seekers to Mali. However, only nine are now left in detention, helped in large part by the failure of a delegation from the Malian government to identify 15 of them as Malian nationals.

The KSU blasted the THP-n reform as a “radical approach…based on a whim as a result of bad judgement and bad planning from the government’s side”.

“The proposed reform will remove any individual who has had Temporary Humanitarian Protection, from people who have been living in Malta for less than a year to ones who have been here for over 10 years indiscriminately,” it argued.