EU law and policy [on] reception of asylum seekers : the implications for Malta

Abstract

Illegal migration is one of the main burning issues in our national legislation, also due to the fact that Malta must implement the European Policy on Refugees. However both the European Union and our own legislation, with regards to refugee policy, are passing through a period of change and thus the main objective of this thesis is to give out an outline and also explain in detail what has led to the present proposed European Union Directive on giving and withdrawing refugee status and what changes will occur to our own legislation with the new Policy Document on Immigration issued early this year. The first chapter of this thesis is an analyses why due to coagulating circumstances reception of refugees becomes very difficult. The European Union has great consideration of what the UNHCR has been proposing in order to help soften this situation, and thus in this first chapter one would find both the proposals of the UNHCR in order to promote greater integration and also a discussion of the needs of asylum seekers in order to integrate completely in the new culture. Chapter two and three deal with the historical transition that took place in the European Union in order to secure harmonization between the Member States with regards to the reception of asylum seekers. Chapter four speaks of how the Member States have adopted the asylum policy and what has been done in order to harmonise the different laws in the member states. Last but not least, in Chapter 5 there is an analysis of how the Maltese legislation is in the present day, dating August 2005 and the proposed amendments to the Refugee Act if we are to adopt the Reception Directive of 2003.