Thousands of asylum seekers leave the island with special document
Matthew Vella The Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs is refusing to divulge the number of travel documents it has issued to asylum seekers, who NGOs say have probably left the island, never to Malta.
The documents are temporary travel passports usually issued to refugees and others with temporary humanitarian or subsidiary protection.
MaltaToday is reliably informed that the travel documents issued to asylum seekers by the government give them temporary leave from the island, but they rarely return.
Repeated requests to the government over the past 12 months have been ignored.
“Travel documents are given to asylum seekers for a temporary visit abroad, say to visit family members. They seldom come back,” a source privy to applications for these documents, said.
High NGO officials who spoke to MaltaToday confirmed this state of affairs, adding that it is likely that Malta has fewer asylum seekers than is currently perceived.
The home affairs ministry had previously also told MaltaToday that it does not know how many rejected asylum seekers, are still in Malta.
A total of 3,241 requests for asylum were turned down in the past six years, but what happens to this category of immigrant afterwards remains a mystery. In total, 5,192 people were deported in the last six years from the 11,273 irregular migrants that came to Malta.
When asked to state the number of failed asylum seekers who have been in Malta for more than a year, a spokesperson for the ministry said “this statistic is not available.”
According to a report by the Berlin Institute of Comparative Social Research, a considerable number of asylum seekers aged under 18 have already been issued with travel documents, and never returned to Malta.
“According to estimations of different experts, around 80% of underage minors want to travel on and unite with ‘relatives’. Most of them do not return. After arriving in another EU Member State with this travel document some are sent back to Malta as the travel document is not accepted. Other minors return to Malta after some months.”
Experts who spoke to this newspaper said asylum seekers who do not wish to re-enter the trafficking cycle again have an official means of leaving the island.
They first ask for permission for short-time travel, for example one week, using a Convention Travel Document, to visit relatives in another EU state. This is especially possible for both refugees and persons with temporary humanitarian status as laid down in the Refugee Act.
NGOs or residential homes can support their application in their wish to travel abroad, with contacts made with their relatives. The relatives may also have to issue an official invitation, if for example the person is under-18.
The authorities then issue a UNHCR travel document, valid for one week, after which the visa expires and the asylum seeker has to return.
The issue of travel documents appears to be a rather established practice, given that government is now pursuing a course of action to get the EU to recognise a ‘laissez - passer’ – French for travel document (let pass) – for asylum seekers and allow them to travel into Europe.
A refugee travel document (also called a 1951 Convention travel document) is a travel document issued to a refugee by the state in which she or he normally resides allowing him or her to travel outside that state and to return there.
1954 Convention travel documents are issued to stateless persons by signatories to the 1954 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, where the person is not a refugee under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
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