Sweden’s asylum burden and Malta’s proportionately the same

Maltese politicians don’t tell the electorate that Sweden receives as many asylum claims, as a proportion of its population, as Malta

3 September 2013, 12:00am
by Matthew Vella

2 min read

Swedish commissioner Cecilia Malmström was the target of a barrage of insults by Maltese supporters of Labour's migration policy.

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FULL DATA • Asylum applications in EU member states 2008-2012 • Asylum claims Malta 2008-2012 • Asylum decisions and arrivals Malta 2008-2012 • Map of asylum claims

Small. Wealthy. Highly-urbanised. In 2013, the island of Malta jealously guards some of the most appealing of attributes. Relatively low levels of crime, amazing weather and a skilled and multilingual workforce. Democratic stability has contributed to uninterrupted flows of foreign investment - over €12 billion in the last year.

So why do African asylum seekers get the national dander up?

Malta has so far received 1,840 asylum seekers - two-thirds of them from Horn of Africa countries like Somalia and Eritrea - under a new Labour government which has already been stopped by the European Court of Human Rights from effecting an illegal deportation.

But throwaway comments by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat that Malta's burden should be taken up by such countries as Sweden - home country of the EU's Immigration Commissioner Cecilia Malmström - has been put paid by data showing the reality of Malta's asylum burden.

Politicians claim large European Union member states should take a fair share of the Mediterranean's asylum seekers due to the disproportionate burden on southern member states like Malta.

But data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees puts such an argument in dispute, especially with regards to Sweden, whose commissioner was the target of social media invective from supporters of the migrant pushbacks that the Maltese government attempted earlier this year.

At a total of 9,000 asylum claims between 2008 and 2012, Malta's burden is not comparable to that of France, Germany or Sweden - respectively 232,000, 201,000 and 153,900 claims over these same years.

But as a percentage of Malta's small population, the numbers appear different. In 2012, the island received 2,060 claims for protection - a total of 4.9 claims for every 1,000 persons living here.

This means Malta has the most claims in Europe (expressed as a percentage per 1,000 persons).

But two countries rank near Malta: Sweden, with its 9.5 million population, which in 2012 took 43,890 claims (a 48% increase over 2011) - putting the ratio there at 4.6%. And then tiny Luxembourg, whose population is similar to Malta's, is at 4%, with 2,050 claims.

Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...

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This is data compiled by EXPERTS,the same species who advised the Bush presidency to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the same species who predict world disasters etc etc etc...that is all the above data is HOGWASH

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Fl-ingilterra il-gurnalisti inglizi jiddefendu ,their own turf' u hawn Malta l-gurnalisti Maltin donnhom ghandhom fetish fuq Malmstrom: min se johrog l-itwal ilsien biex jilghaqa! Minn jaf kemm ghandkom qarrejja Svedizi u ohrajn Ewropej tal-Little Malta Today! Little mhux biex incekkinkom-ghax taghkom l-ahjar gazzetta f'Malta; imam ghax donnkom tinsew li Malta-diga fi zmien l-Gharab 1000 ena ilu, u anke meta baghtu l-kummissarji l-Kavallieri,kollha qalu kemm Malta hi zghira u barren. Anke Dr Cassola qal li it-Torok kienu jghidu 'Fejn hi Malta....intom Le?

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In this country we need journalists not reporters on behalf of unreliable and questionable sources such as UNHCR. If one bother to download EC official data, one can easily work our through basic mathematics that Malta has the biggest burden which is at least twice that of Sweden. Secondly, as a legal citizen of this country, I do not care what the Swedes are happy with. They can do what they like with their own land.

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Yes dear Cecilia, we all know you also have an immigration problem in Sweden. "In Sweden, according to official crime statistics, the number of reported rapes has quadrupled during the past 20 years. In 2008, just over 4,000 rapes of people over 15, the great majority of them girls and women, were reported." -Amnesty international 2010 We all know who the perpetrators are, simply Google 'Sweden rape' and you will get your answer.

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From the last graph, spot the year in which pushbacks took place. No wonder the NGO's protested. All that loss of income from the EU.

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Dear Ms Malstorm please note the following. Malta has a land mass area of 316 sq km with a Population Density of 1287.3 persons per Square KM. While Sweden has a land mass of 410,934 Square KM and a Population of about 9million. Population Density 22 persons per square KM. Is this the Same? Sweden still has space which we in Malta do not have enough for us. An other factor that you may not be considering is our resources which are all ready stretched Health wise, any increase of Population only increases the stress. One has also to consider any epidemic outbreak that could happen which I am sure would be a task to control in Sweden but rest assured that such situations would be uncontrollable in Malta. I wish to mention one thing that we are seeing constantly Scabies. This skin Dieses has been eradicated from Malta after the 2WW and we really seen it until this last decade. I feel that this is enough for now so please continue comparing and push on the other EU states to start shouldering the burden and share like all Europeans should do. When the EU needed to bail out Greece and other countries we gave more than enough of our share and shouldered the burden so now lets see the real solidarity. Joseph Howard

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Ten thousand more or less immigrants are not going to hurt my job prospects; they can't compete for my job, but for the thousands of Maltese poor-more than 17% of the population,- more immigrants means more precarious work and this is a major problem. For jobs, as for everything else, there is the law of supply and demand and Maltese without skills have to compete with the unskilled immigrants precarious jobs-. More unskilled workers are going to be a drag on our economy which is supposed to rely on cutting edge skilled jobs. Is it not right to take care of our 17% Maltese poor before we embark on helping the foreign poor who come here for better economic prospects.? I say that charity begins at home. Thank you.

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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130807/opinion/Migration-what-s-at-stake.481140 In Somalia There are 16.12 Somalis per sq km In Malta there are already 16.66 Somalis per sq km. What now Malmstrom?

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Who gives a hoot what is happening in Sweden. If Ms Malstrom is happy with the situation in Sweden here in Malta we are not. That is no valid argument of hers, she might as well say "Rape in Malta is not a proiblem because in Sweden we also get raped" and so on and so forth. She had better get a grip on things because as a commissioner she has failed so far.

Alan Mamo •

What a cunning argument. The problem is the population density not the ratio to the population! This is the whole problem. This shows the lack of sincerity and solidarity coming from other European countries.

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What this article fails to compare is the huge discrepancy between the population density of the 2 countries. (ppl/mil2) Malta 3,421 vs Sweden 60. This is the most important data in my opinion.

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Ahfruli li bl-Ingliz: I do not have the favour of the massive bureau Swedish commissioner Cecilia Malmström enjoys the favour of, but I shall quote from Asylum trends statistics for 2008, as they result in a June 2009 publication by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service of The Netherlands reveal that when considered according to country area size, “Malta received by far and away the largest number of asylum applications in Europe: 8.254 per 1.000 sq km, more than 100 times more than the EU average (55 per 1.000 sq km)”. Cyprus and Belgium ranked second and third at a large distance with about 10 times more applications than the EU average. When it comes to the number of asylum applications in 2008 related to population size, Malta is again at the top of the list. It received most applications in relation to its population size: 6.349 applications per million inhabitants, 13,2 times more than the EU average (481 applications per million inhabitants). Sweden (x5,6) ranked third. The story goes on: the statistics regarding the number of asylum applications in 2008 related to GDP size (in purchasing power standard) arranged in decreasing order, show Malta on top once more. Indeed, Malta, Cyprus and Sweden were the numbers one, two and three, with 16,9 and 9,8 and 4,6 times respectively more applications in relation to GDP size than the EU average. The publication also includes an overview of all indicators of country size (area, population and GDP) related to number of asylum applications in 2008. “It reveals that in 2008 Malta received in Europe the far and away largest number of asylum applications in relation to its country size when taking the three indicators of country size together (59,6 times more than average in the EU). The distance with the other European countries is massive: Cyprus and Belgium ranked second and third receiving an average of 9,9 and 5,1 times more applications in relation to their country size than the EU average.”

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If Sweden is as burdened as us .. they should be helped as much as us ... where's the rest of Europe?