On being moved : refugee perceptions of being relocated to Malta

Abstract

Malta’s 2017 participation in the European Union relocation scheme presented us with one of the first experiments at intra-EU relocation. Through this scheme, a number of asylum-seekers were relocated to Malta from Italy or Greece, as an expression of solidarity with these two Member States and an attempt to bolster efforts at solidarity in the field of asylum. We knew that the relocated asylum-seekers would be persons who, having spent a number of months or years living in difficult conditions, were offered the opportunity to travel to Malta as part of a regulated and structured process. We noted that, although they would be channelled through Malta’s ‘regular’ reception and asylum systems, they would nonetheless be experiencing these systems from a perspective different to that experienced by asylum-seekers reaching Malta through other means. Also, from an institutional perspective, this would be Malta’s first-time participation in a scheme as a receiving, and not sending, Member State. The EU relocation exercise attempted to address the unequal distribution of asylum seekers among EU countries, which in many ways is a consequence of EU and national laws and policies regulating asylum and migration. States’ exclusive focus on the protection of national interests has led to a drive to contain refugees at the EU’s external borders or its periphery, and to a lack of willingness to truly protect refugees and respect their fundamental human rights. This being said, it is also true that in the past couple of years there have been some positive steps forward, such as an increase in integration initiatives at local level in various EU countries and some efforts to increase legal pathways for protection. However, unfortunately, these initiatives are often fragmented and, in our view, fall short of a concrete expression of genuine solidarity towards refugees and a commitment to offer them meaningful and effective protection as a Union. Possibly more worrying, we are seeing a resistance to assume responsibility for the care and well-being of asylum seekers, which has led to the lowering of protection standards, particularly in those areas where Member States have struggled to cope with large arrivals of refugees (see for example Squire et al, 2017).