NEWS | Wednesday, 11 March 2009

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James Debono
Asylum seekers, persons enjoying humanitarian protection and refugees constitute 14% of the total number of legally employed foreign workers, and most of them occupy lower-end jobs in the construction and tourism industries.
This emerges from figures released in January by the Employment Training Corporation.
Refugees constitute barely 0.6% of the total. Persons enjoying humanitarian protection constitute 7.8% of all foreign workers. A further 5.6% are asylum seekers whose claim for refugee status has still to be determined.
Most foreign workers in Malta either hail from the European Union (46.4%), or have legally entered Malta from non-EU countries (38.5%).
Currently there are 1,008 irregular migrants and refugees who have been given a work permit.
The largest number (31.3%) is of persons employed in hotels and restaurants. According to the ETC, these are usually assigned jobs as cleaners, kitchen hands and chambermaids. A further 22.2% are employed in the construction industry.
This is a clear indication that irregular immigrants are mostly employed in jobs at the lower end of the Maltese labour market. The ETC does not conduct any profiling of skills among irregular migrants.

Industries employing foreign workers
No %
Hotels and restaurants 315 31.3
Construction 224 22.2
Manufacturing 184 18.3
Wholesale trade 48 4.8
Retail trade 19 1.9
Sale of fuel/repair of cars 19 1.9
Recycling 12 1.2
Health/social work 12 1.2
Cultural/sports activities 12 1.2
Other 163 16.2

Foreign workers with work permits:
EU citizens 4,091 46.4
EU dependencies 27 0.3
Non-EU 3,395 38.5
Asylum seekers 492 5.6
Refugees 54 0.6
Humanitarian protection 691 7.8
Long-term residents 59 0.7
Total 8,809 100

(Source: Employment Training Corporation, January 2009)

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