Letters | Wednesday, 31 December 2008

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Work of the Refugee Commissioner

Please refer to the article written by Mr Raphael Vassallo in the Malta Today issue of Wednesday, 24 December, 2008.
I feel that certain arguments that were raised in Mr Vassallo’s article need to be clarified for the benefit of your readers.
There are only three points in the article of Mr Vassallo which concern this Office. These are (a) failure to honour commitments to improve the asylum determination process, (b) The Commissioner of Refugees has never been to Lyster Tent Centre, (c) persons still not interviewed more than six months after having filed an application for asylum.
Despite the fact that the asylum application process is a hugely complex and technical matter, I will try to be as short as possible in my replies and comments.

Commitments to speed up the application process
There were many developments and improvements in the last years. Some of them are the following: the formulating of a user-friendly Preliminary Questionnaire (translation available in six languages), the introduction of the Country Desk, the improvement in interpreting and translating services with the creation of a Translators Pool, the implementation of the schedule system together with the on-going training of the staff, the acquisition of material resources, and the setting up of an interviewing centre at Safi with four offices.
Figures will also help to prove that commitments were clearly respected. When the Office of the Refugee Commissioner was set up in 2002, there was a grand total of five persons as staff. On the 28th June 2007, when I became Refugee Commissioner there were 12 persons on the staff. Today, there are 22, and the three existing vacancies will be filled in the coming weeks.
With the real commitment of the Government and the hard work of the previous Refugee Commissioner, Mr Charles Buttigieg, and the present administration, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of asylum applications decided per month. From beginning of 2002 to end of 2007, 5,245 cases were concluded, giving on average, 72 cases per month. In the first eleven months of this year, 2,548 cases were concluded, giving an average of 231 cases per month. The figures speak for themselves.

Role of the Office of the Refugee Commissioner
The responsibility of the Refugee Commissioner and his Office is to receive asylum applications, interview applicants, make the necessary research, evaluate the different claims, and recommend to the Minister, whether the applicant should be recognized as a refugee or be given some sort of protection, or declare that he/she is ineligible for protection.
It does not follow from this responsibility that the Refugee Commissioner should visit regularly the closed centres. In fact given the particular nature of his work, it may not be advisable or practical to do so. On the other hand it must be also mentioned that such visits do occur when their need is felt. In fact the last time that the Refugee Commissioner visited a closed centre was on Saturday, 6th December, 2008, at Safi, when he met a delegation made up of six persons from different countries.

Length of the asylum application process
First of all it must be clarified that the filing of the Application is of its nature, the first interview. So it is not possible for a person to still await his first interview when the Application has already been filled in. The Application is filled in by the case worker herself/himself, and signed by the client.
If on the other hand, Mr Vassallo was referring to the filling in of the Preliminary Questionnaire, by which clients “request to register desire to apply for Recognition of Refugee Status in terms of the Refugee Act” the following will be interesting.
Mr Vassallo referred to a comment made by one client and adding that this is true for many others. If this person at Lyster, has been in detention for more than six months, and has filled in his ‘application for asylum’ six months ago, then he must have arrived in Malta before the 25th June 2008.
According to information at the Office of the Refugee Commissioner, 778 persons arrived in Malta by that date. The following is a breakdown of their status at the moment:

• Filled in the Preliminary Questionnaire: 776
• Cases concluded by the Refugee Commissioner: 742 (588 Subsidiary Protection and have left closed centre, 154 asylum claim not eligible)
• Therefore that leaves us with 34 cases. Of these, 1 has passed away, 2 returned to their country of origin, 14 have already been interviewed and will be decided shortly (5 of them already in open centres).

That leaves seventeen cases, all of which are considered to be special cases. It must be specified that none of them are residing at Lyster. 12 of these cases made contradictory declarations regarding their nationality, languages spoken or other matters which unfortunately bring about complications and delays to the processing of their application. Nonetheless, 10 of them are going to be interviewed in the first week of January. With their co-operation the other two will hopefully be interviewed shortly as well. Of the other five cases, four have already been released and are in open centres (two are babies), and another has been repeatedly reporting sick each time he is called for the interview.
Of the persons that arrived after the 25 June, 2008, these being 1,867 in number, 671 cases are also ready or almost so.
In 2008 we had 800 arrivals more than in the year 2007. If it weren’t for this increase in influx, we would only have 335 clients still to interview.
Finally, it is the intention of the Office of the Refugee Commissioner to communicate a report about its work during the year 2008 to the media in due course.
Wishing all an excellent new year.

Mario Guido Friggieri
Refugee Commissioner

Editorial Note:
The Commissioner might have misinterpreted Raphael Vassallo’s candid interviews with asylum seekers living inside the Hal Far tent city. These interviewees mistakenly believed the “refugee commissioner” to be Mgr Philip Calleja of the Church’s emigrants commission; and that it was Calleja whom they alleged had never visited them - seemingly confirming the lack of information amongst asylum seekers themselves on a process that ultimately could turn into a life-or-death decision for them.
Mr Friggieri however should realise this report was not about his office. It is about the living conditions inside the tent compound. While the Commissioner’s letter explaining the workings of the Commission is welcomed, we fail to understand how the government does not react to the inhumane conditions inside the tent compound.

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