Unaccompanied minors in Malta : their numbers and the policies and arrangements for their reception, return and integration

Abstract

Despite much dedicated work and fast growth, reception services for migrants are severely constrained by the sheer numbers of arrivals on unsafe boats crossing from North Africa to Europe, often forced to land in Malta having met distress on the seas. Escalating to 2700 during 2008 on the European Union’s (EU) smallest country, 316 sq km in size, such arrivals are equivalent to a typically-sized EU country receiving several millions of combined asylum seekers and illegal immigrants per year. Malta, in fact, now has the greatest number of asylum seekers per 1000 population of any country in the world.

Unaccompanied minors arrive among such boat people, travelling for the same main reasons, whether escaping danger or poverty. All undocumented arrivals in Malta are subjected to detention. Unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable immigrants are freed relatively soon after; others once recognised as rightful asylum seekers, or after 18 months maximum if they are not. Forced repatriation of rejected asylum seekers has been almost inexistent, due to yet-unsolved logistical problems. Many immigrants travel undocumented to the continent.

In 2008, 400 out of 2223 asylum claimants (out of 2700 immigrants) claimed to be unaccompanied minors, out of whom 28 (7% of the claimants) were accepted to be so. In 2007 the latter proportion was 30%. Efforts to keep waiting claimants (who turn out to include a vast majority of adults), in special areas within detention separate from non-claiming and non-vulnerable detained adults have only partly succeeded. The age assessment process may at time take up to several months, during which detention of pending claimants of unaccompanied minor status persists.

Recognised unaccompanied minors are placed under the care of the Ministry for Social Policy through a Care Order and placed in two residential hostels. There, social workers and other staff offer a safe home, implement individualised care plans, and work to offer them social, educational and leisure opportunities. The richness of this program varies from time to time and according to area of growth and integration. While there has been a measure of in-house tuition, and extended programs offered by two Church schools, the efforts to apply the right for education is still far from assuring that each is attending full-time and appropriate education. Involvement in local social and leisure opportunities can further develop. Different unaccompanied minors will have different needs, so that moving some to specialised mainstream facilities is a good practice worth further developing. Large proportions of the unaccompanied minors of higher age groups tend to abscond, possibly in search of their intended destinations. There is growing awareness of the dangers of human trafficking and an increasingly vigilant application of this to unaccompanied youngsters, which is especially needed for those who move to other countries. One notes that unaccompanied minors are among those who gain from generous help from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and International Organisations (IOs), as well as programs of resettlement to other countries, the latter process being carefully monitored with the help of IOs.

Thanks to good progress made in many areas, it is noted that, if taken up, decisive and coordinated action involving the all departments concerned can now achieve effective fast tracking and the always separate accommodation of claiming unaccompanied minors, the education and wider integration of unaccompanied minors and further improved vigilance regarding human trafficking. Meanwhile, it is only very recently that EU countries seem on the point of acknowledging the need of taking a significant share of the burden Malta is bearing, which would obviously be the only possible solution to the most intractable aspect of the problem, that is, the overwhelming numbers.