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The dress-dressed Somali in Malta





(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

The asylum scheme is a key part of Europe's humanitarian heritage. Is it possible to manage this legacy in a wise and sustainable way in the midst of today's large-scale influx? My meeting with a young Somali man in Malta gave an insight into several aspects of the problem.

In November 2015 I was on a work trip in Malta. Here I met Ahmed, an 27 year old Somali, who immediately became interested when I mentioned that I was from Norway. It turned out that Ahmed himself lived in Norway in 2011 – 2013.

Screen Shot at 2016 05-11-14.30.31In 2011 he was part of a group of Somalis trying to take a boat from the coast of Libya to Europe. The plan was to sail to Italy, but the boat ended up in Maltese waters instead. Maltese conference people I spoke to confirmed to me that boat migrants often end up in Malta, and at first think they have reached the European mainland.

At first, Ahmed had no idea of ​​the difference between Malta and Italy. The border guards who picked them up at the beach told them they were in Malta and immediately placed them in the notorious detention camp Halfar. “The conditions at Halfar Prison were miserable, and several people revolted. After three months in there, I got a stay and was let out, ”Ahmed said.

Malta has received a lot of international criticism for its internment practices, but has defended itself with reference to security concerns. Authorities have claimed that they cannot let people roam freely around the community without knowing who they are.

When Ahmed finally come out in freedom, he just wanted to move on. The experience of his stay in the detention camp had made him skeptical. The residence permit and the migration passport he was given finally gave him the opportunity to leave the island and travel freely inland in Schengen, so he made the trip to Norway.

From the story he told me, it turned out that it was the UDI's Dublin unit, under my leadership, who was responsible for his case and who helped him to return to Malta.

When I told him this, the conversation took another turn and suddenly became far more interesting to both of us. "So you're from the UDI?" Ahmed asked. "No, but I worked with Dublin cases in the UDI when you were in Norway," I explained. "I understand you just had to do your job, but can you help me get back?" Ahmed asked.

In UDI, he was just one issue among many. Unlike the other entities that evaluated the asylum history, the Dublin unit concentrated only on some information, such as: Where was the applicant registered first, what kind of status did he have there and was it possible to transfer him there? Name, nationality and asylum history were often not relevant. We could discuss a case without remembering the nationality, since the most relevant was which country in Europe the case was linked to. When I handled the cases, I used to open the image on the screen from the Immigration and Refugee Case (DUF) computer system to see the face behind the case.

Now, on the other hand, I met the whole person behind the case and heard his story – how Ahmed himself had experienced the process, and how our decision had affected his life.

Because he had obtained "subsidiary protection" in Malta under the European Convention on Human Rights and not refugee status under the Refugee Convention, his fingerprints were not registered in the European database Eurodac. Thus, Norway could not send him back to Malta under the Dublin rules. This is complicated law, and I will not try to explain, but the point was that Norway and Malta disagreed with the interpretation of the Dublin rules when it came to Ahmed and asylum seekers in the same situation. Malta refused to accept Somalis who had traveled to, for example, Sweden and Norway. But the legal disagreement with Malta meant that we were unable to carry out the returns purely physically. At the airport, Maltese police would only ask Norwegian police to return with the asylum seeker. The solution was to refuse and to expect the applicant to return. But Ahmed didn't do this right away.

He first went from Trondheim to Oslo, where for almost a year he worked for a Somali entrepreneur in Greenland for only 2000 NOK a month. "Half the money went to pay the bed I slept in. But one day I got bored and went to Malta. Among other things, to renew my residence permit and not risk not being allowed to stay anywhere in Europe. ”

That was interesting for me to hear that Ahmed left Norway "voluntarily" anyway. We assumed that those with a residence permit in other EU countries would sooner or later go back there so as not to risk losing everything and becoming paperless in the EU. After all, living "underground" in Norway is not so easy. There is a small market for black labor, but you get poorly paid, and it is expensive to live here in the country.

I asked Ahmed about life in Malta. “In Malta, too, life is difficult. I have to work hard to survive. ”

While Ahmed talked about life in Malta, one thing I was thrilled about. The young and sympathetic Somali was very well dressed, and did not look exactly like someone from a poor working class. From the experience of talking to asylum seekers, I know that it is best to confront them with conditions that seem to be completely unrelated. This is to remove any doubts about their history, which may be in everyone's interest. So I asked him with a twinkle in his eye: "You Ahmed, you talk about how tough you are here in Malta, but you look like a stockbroker or something? With suit and tie and stuff. Is this the dress code for the poorest in Malta, or? "

He smiled first and then answered earnestly: "Eh, let me tell you why. Before, I wore ordinary clothes, but I have often experienced that the bus does not stop for me, and that I am looked down on by Maltese. Now when I'm nicely dressed, I get respect. The bus stops and I am treated well, not with condescension or suspicion as before, and no strange look. Maltese are nice people, don't get me wrong, but the suit and tie make life a little easier for a black man like me. "

The Norwegian saying that you should not look at the dog on your hair suddenly made sense. Olav Thon would look like a poor poor man next to this young gentleman. The story behind the choice of clothes made a strong impression. That's what it took for Ahmed to experience dignity in everyday life.

Ahmed is one of those who have "disappeared from Norwegian asylum centers", which no one in the system knows where it has become. On my way back from Malta, I reflect a bit on his case. Case handlers in the UDI have great power over human destinies. If the UDI had decided to deal with the case in Norway, Ahmed would probably have stayed in Norway, and he would probably have had a better life. But was it wrong of the UDI to insist that he return to Malta even though Malta refused to accept him? Well, the logic behind the rejection is straightforward. A person who has already received protection in Europe should not be entitled to have his or her application for protection re-processed in another country. It is unfortunate to use resources on the same issues several times, not least when there are so many first things to deal with.

But there is another dimension here. Malta is a small country and cannot accept as many. As a small island in the Mediterranean between Africa and Europe, they are in a very vulnerable situation during these migration times. Do not other European countries have a moral responsibility to show solidarity with little Malta and not apply the Dublin Regulation to the country?

Malta is one calm and safe society where there is order and harmony. While Italy received as many as 170 boat migrants in 000, Malta escaped with only 2014. It is easy to refer to the country's obligations under international conventions and EU directives. It is also easy to say that the country has a "moral duty" to help people in need – but how much difference can little Malta make in the world? With its 568 inhabitants, Malta has just over 400 percent of Oslo's population. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, was asked during a TED talk in December 000 whether there is a limit to how many refugees European countries can accept. He said this was "a question without answer, for refugees are entitled to protection. And there is something called international law. You can't say I'm accepting 60 and 'that's it'.

No, it's not that simple. What if 40 asylum seekers come to Malta annually? This would mean that Malta's population more than doubled in just ten years. And what if there were as many as Sweden in 000, namely over 2015? Malta would soon collapse as a society.

It is not enough simply to refer to "international law". It is not the law and the rights that solve Europe's migration challenges. It is the internal cooperation in Europe and the EU's cooperation with African countries. It is the holistic approach, and there are solutions that balance between several considerations that are the way to go. And it is not only Malta that is in a vulnerable situation in these times of migration. As EU President Donald Tusk stated at a meeting in Brussels on October 6, 2015: "We can no longer allow solidarity to be equivalent to naivety, openness to be equivalent to helplessness, freedom to be equivalent to chaos."


Taraku is secretary general of the LIM network

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