[WATCH] UNHCR representative urges Malta to help refugees integrate better

Malta needs to do more to help refugees and migrants integrate better into society to complement its laudable efforts in managing the international refugee crisis, the UNHCR's representative to Malta, Kahin Ismail, told MaltaToday. 

Kahin Ismail (left) Photo: James Bianchi/MediaToday

Ismail, who took up his post in January, said that Malta was a key player in the Mediterranean refugee effort but said he would be working with the authorities on ways to make integration easier for refugees in Malta. 

"The Mediterranean refugee corridor remains a major pathway for migrants coming to Europe, and thousands of lives are saved every year on the sea," he said when asked about claims made last week by Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz. The minister, who is due in Malta later on this week, insisted that the refugee policy along the Mediterranean-Italian route was "wrong". 

Ismail formed part of a panel of experts invited to address an international conference on the Mediterranean migration route organised in Valletta by Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

MOAS is a Malta-based registered foundation dedicated to mitigating the loss of life at sea and provides professional search and rescue assistance to refugees and migrants in distress at sea.

It called for the official establishment of legal refugee corridors in the Mediterranean to help mitigate the loss of life and the abuse of refugees at the hands of smugglers. 

"No country can tackle migration issue alone"

Addressing the conference, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil thanked MOAS for the "sterling and inspiring work" it was doing and said no country or the EU itself had managed to do as much as MOAS had in such a short span. 

He said MOAS's recommendation that an official, legal refugee corridor be established in the Mediterranean was a commendable one but which, he was sure, would face opposition. 

"Every politician, no matter how good his heart is, wants to be in office and wants to be re-elected," he said. "And so the question is how to sell this plan to politicians across Europe."

He said German Chancellor Angela Merkel might yet pay a political price in her country's upcoming elections for her decision to allow a large number of refugees into her country. 

Busuttil said he believed civil society could provide viable answers and solutions when states failed to do so. 

"If this issue is too hot to handle for states and governments, then maybe the answer is there already for all to see," he said. "Maybe they should start propping up and supporting civil society efforts."

Busuttil said he felt no country, however big, could tackle this phenomenon alone. 

"I believe the answer lies in empowering civil society to play a larger, organised part in the effort, from helping organising flights but also establishing welcoming committees to help get refugees acclimated and settling down quickly " he said. 

Ismail said that 86% of refugees remain in developing countries, mainly to the south, in North African countries where they spend many years. 

"When you look at the figures, it shows the magnitude of the problem, with 21 million refugees in 2016 running from home, but only 1%  being ultimately resettled," he said. 

In all, 65 million people were currently displaced worldwide, he said. 

Ismail said that the process of family reunification was currently shameful and that more needed to be done to ensure that refugees be reunited with their families. 

Unravelling fact from fiction

Jeff Crisp, research associate at the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, said there are certain rights to which all migrants are entitled, including being rescued at sea, decent shelter and protection against detention, deportation and abuse. 

Cesare Zucconi, secretary general of the Community of Sant' Egidio, said it was not true that everybody was coming to Europe, and only a third of refugees were actually heading west and north. 

The vast majority of refugees choose to head south, he said. 

"Nor is it true, for example, that the majority of migrants who land in Italy are Muslims," Zucconi said. "In fact, 70% of migrants in Italy come from a non-Muslim country and background."

Alganesc Fesseha, founder and president of Associazione Gandhi, said many people often forgot about the large number if unaccompanied children that go missing when running away from their home country. 

"Inside the refugee crisis is a further crisis with human trafficking, and behind that too lurks a deeper crisis, organ trafficking," she said.